Design as Communication

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“Design is that area of human experience, skill and knowledge which is concerned with man’s ability to mould his environment to suit his material and spiritual needs.” (Archer, 1973)

The term DESIGN broadly includes: – Product Design, Architecture, Graphic Design, Urban Planning & Design, Fashion Design, Interaction Design, Event Design, Experience Design, Sound Design, Lighting Design, Identity Design …


Design not only covers the aesthetic aspects of creation but also involves: – – – – – – – – – –

Answering Needs Providing Solutions Increasing Usability / Accessibility Offering new Functions Improving Ergonomics Addressing Emotions Creating User Experience (through Perception / Cognition) Increasing Efficiency Leading Innovation Facilitating Communication


• Affordances •

“ When a designer announces "I put an affordance there," what could possibly be meant? To the purist, affordances simply exist they are the actions possible by an agent (usually a person) and the environment. But the concept was invented for the natural world, and when it comes to the physical, constructed world, it does make sense for a designer to have deliberately shaped and located the materials so as to afford action. Thus, a chair does indeed afford support, whether for standing, sitting, kneeling, or lying down, and this support has been deliberately designed in by the astute designer. An adroitly placed handle affords pulling, and so on.” (Norman, 2004)


• Physical Affordances



• Regulatory Information


• Symbolic Interaction

• Instruction


• Symbolic Interaction Symbolic Interaction

“Modern man, urban man, spends his time reading. He reads, first, of all and above all, images, gestures, behaviors; this car tells me the social status of ints owner, this garment tells me quite precisely the degree of its wearer’s conformism or eccentricity, this apéritif (whiskey, Pernod, or white whine and cassis) reveals my host’s life-style.” (Barthes, 1994)


• Symbolic Interaction


• Symbolic Interaction

• Emotional Design


• Symbolic Interaction

• Lifestyles


• Symbolic Interaction

• Identity


• Symbolic Interaction

• Social Status


• Symbolic Interaction

• Kitsch


• Symbolic Interaction

“The designer's model, the system image, and the user's model. For people to use a product successfully, they must have the same mental model (the user's model) as that of the designer (the designer's model). But the designer only talks to the user via the product itself, so the entire communication must take place through the "system image": the information conveyed by the physical product itself.� (Norman, 2004)


• Symbolic Interaction

• Usage Scenarios •

http://live.philips.com/index.php/global/video/intelligent-shopwindow/26703364001


“Change that creates a new dimension of performance” (Peter Drucker)


“The ability to deliver new value to a customer” (Jose Campos) •

http://live.philips.com/index.php/global/video/philips-wake-up-light-2/2629173001


“The introduction of new goods (…), new methods of production (…), the opening of new markets (…), the conquest of new sources of supply (…) and the carrying out of a new organization of any industry” (Joseph Schumpeter)


• User-generated Content


• New ways of communication


• Social Participation



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