ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS FOR INNOVATIVE DESK LAMP CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

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1 ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS FOR INNOVATIVE DESK LAMP CONCEPTUAL DESIGN Nien-Te Liu 1, Chang-Tzuoh Wu 2 and Jia-Cin Li 3 1 Department of Product Design, Shu-Te University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2 Department of Industrial Design, Kaohsiung Normal University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 3 Graduate School of Applied Art and Design, Shu-Te University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan ntliu@stu.edu.tw; ctwu@nknucc.nknu.edu.tw; s @stu.edu.tw Received December 2016, Accepted June 2017 No. 16-CSME-150, E.I.C. Accession 4035 ABSTRACT Desk lamp designers tend to focus on the structure of lamps and not consider the option of incorporating new, innovative designs. Creative functional elements and innovative illustrations for desk lamps are proposed in this study. The main creative functional elements are lamp shades, bases, hinges, and pipes. There are three connecting types for these main creative functional elements: the assembled type, the composite type, and the integrated type. These principles are applied to create three creative functional elements and three connecting types that are subsequently used to generate three innovative conceptual designs. Keywords: desk lamp design; creative functional elements; graph theory. CARACTÉRISTIQUES DES ÉLÉMENTS FONCTIONNELS POUR UNE CONCEPTION INNOVATRICE DES LAMPES DE TABLE RÉSUMÉ Les concepteurs de lampes de table ont tendance à se concentrer sur la structure de la lampe et à mettre de côté l introduction de nouveaux concepts. Dans cette étude on propose des éléments fonctionnels créatifs et des illustrations novatrices pour des lampes de table. Les éléments principaux fonctionnels créatifs comprennent l abat-jour, le pied, la harpe et le tube. Il y a trois types de connecteurs pour ces éléments principaux : le type d assemblage ; le type des composants ; le type des circuits. Ces principes sont appliqués pour créer trois éléments fonctionnels créatifs et trois types de raccordement qui sont ensuite utilisés pour générer trois concepts innovateurs. Mots-clés : conception d une lampe de table; éléments créatifs fonctionnels; théorie des graphes. Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3,

2 1. INTRODUCTION Mass production using machines became possible after the industrial revolution. This, along with other continuous technological advancements, has significantly increased the variety of products available from which consumers can select. For businesses, a significant challenge is to launch innovative products as quickly as possible. However, creativity is not something that is always readily accessible; to maintain an endless stream of innovative and brilliant ideas for new products is nearly impossible for designers. Moreover, the greatest challenge for designers is to combine creativity and functionality. This major challenge, in combination with pressure from superiors, causes the speed of launching new products to far exceed that of generating ideas, thereby compromising product innovation. A method to overcome this problem by facilitating product design is the adoption of product semiotics by which designers can generate product combinations that satisfy design restrictions and criteria before styling the look of a new product. Desk lamps are an everyday necessity for many people. Because the key function of desk lamps is illumination, the designs are fundamentally similar. Although the design of desk lamps is a critical factor influencing consumer selection, it typically lacks innovation, particularly regarding the structure and method of use. Thus, the present study has been designed to investigate the expressions and connections of the semiotic functional elements of desk lamps and to analyze and explore the relationships of these functional elements such that new design criteria for more innovative and creative desk lamps can be established. The objectives of this study are as follows: 1. To explore the expressions of product semiotics and the types of connections between the functional elements. 2. To analyze the semiotic structures of desk lamps to determine the design criteria. 3. To design a desk lamp product on the basis of the aforementioned connections of elements and the design criteria of desk lamps. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, product functional elements are first discussed, followed by product semantics, and then graph theory. In consumer psychology, product attributes refer to (1) characteristics explicitly and implicitly detectable by consumers, and (2) combinations of product properties. Therefore, each product is represented by a set of product attributes, of which include its appearance, brand, functions, and price. The value of each of these product attributes varies among consumers [1], with consumers viewing each product as a collection of several attributes. Each product comprises connotative and denotative attributes; the former refers to the physical and chemical properties, as well as to the appearance of a product, while the latter refers to the sum of the geometric shapes of the connotative attributes. Product attributes are referred to differently by different researchers; the terms used are as follows: (1) product characteristics/features, (2) product components, and (3) product elements. In the present study, elements is used to refer to product attributes, and product functional elements refers to the objects constituting a product. Each product, regardless of the type, is developed via a combination of several functional elements that can be disassembled then reassembled into a new combination of elements [2]. Semiotics is a branch of human science that studies the creation and expression of meaning. It focuses on the respective processes of transmitting ideas and concepts through words, icons, customs, and everyday experiences. Additionally, semiotics can be applied to a broad range of areas, with considerable application to various designs and artworks [3]. Studies of product semantics began in the early 1980s when semantics was first introduced to product design as a branch of semiotics [4]. Hsiao [5] indicated that the problems 458 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2017

3 and options encountered by users when using a product are obscured by visual aesthetics. Hsiao [5] also proposed that, according to Peirce s theory of signs, product semantics can be decomposed and categorized into product semantics, product syntax, or product pragmatics, and that the cognitive process of signs is based on coding and decoding, where the designer is the encoder and the user is the decoder. Hsiao [5] concluded that, because the use of elements requires designers to consider the code system with which users are familiar, product design entails more than merely employing styling skills. A graph composed of nodes and edges connecting two nodes is called a general graph. If only one edge can be drawn between two nodes, a simple graph is formed. In this type of graph, each node is number coded for identification and identified to highlight its importance. A graph may contain n parts. If there is a path between any two nodes in the graph, then the graph is connective and is thus termed a connective graph [6]. As an extension, isomorphism, as it relates to graphs, has a number of basic principles, one of which requiring that two graphs share the same number of nodes, edges, and parts to be isomorphic. Additionally, if a graph contains a node connected to three other nodes, then the corresponding isomorphic graph should also contain a node connected to three other nodes. Furthermore, isomorphic graphs must have the same number sequence. According to graph theory, the interactions between the nodes and lines and how the nodes and lines are connected must be considered when defining two graphs as isomorphic, with neither the size of nodes nor the length of lines being relevant. In a similar study, Liu and Wu [7] proposed representations for bicycle characteristics using the concept of graph theory; however, the process of bicycle design is not mentioned in the study. Contrastively, this paper proposes representations for desk lamps and applies these symbol representations to clearly and efficiently represent various features of innovative design. 3. REPRESENTATIONS FOR DESK LAMPS 3.1. Collecting Design Cases and Verifying Elements Desk lamps were selected for use in this study because they are frequently used consumer products. In addition, although, assorted types of desk lamps exist on the market, the general focus of design remains on their appearance rather than their structure or special functions. Therefore, this study chose to use desk lamps to explore the use of symbols in product design. To begin, the study collected pictures of desk lamps available on the market; 76 samples (desk lamps) met the criteria. The 76 desk lamp samples were numbered in sequence, with the main functional elements of the desk lamps being classified as lamp shades, hinges, pipes, or lamp bases; each part of each sample was analyzed in detail Functional Elements and Representations The problems and options encountered when using products may be obscured by visual aesthetics. For both users and designers, the functional aspect of products is often overshadowed by their appearance. Here, to eliminate the possibility of this overshadowing, the appearance of desk lamps was uniformly expressed using signs and symbols. The key functional elements of each desk lamp were respectively summarized and labeled with signs, and each element was assigned a specific symbol. As an example, the lamp shade is a functional element that has been assigned the following sign: an I in a circle (Table 1). Additionally, all elements are treated as identical, and a black circle is used to represent an element. A comprehensive illustration of the signs and symbols for desk lamp elements is shown in Table 1. It should be noted that functional elements are interconnected, with the connection existing between two elements denoting the characteristics of the product, not the mechanism. Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3,

4 Table 1. The representations for desk lamp functional elements. Table 2. The representations for desk lamp connections. In this study, there were three types of connections for desk lamp elements: (1) the assembled type, (2) the composite type, and (3) the integrated type. For the assembled type, functions were simpler than those of the other two types were, and there were no additional or supplementary functions. For the composite type, hinges were used to not only connect the lamp pipes, but also to provide better stability when using the additional lamp features. For the integrated type of connection, the lamp pipe also acted as a joint, thus eliminating the necessity of hinges. A complete list of sign and symbol representations for desk lamp connections is shown in Table Analysis Based on Desk Lamp Representations The steps to transforming the representation of desk lamps into signs are summarized below. 1. Verify the desk lamp elements and their connections. 2. Assign each lamp element a sign. 3. Link the signs of each element using connections. For exemplification, the above steps were applied to one sample from the collection of samples. First, the elements of the desk lamp sample were identified, as shown in Fig. 1(a), and coded with the corresponding signs, as shown in Fig. 1(b). Then, the types of connections between the elements were classified in detail, 460 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2017

5 Fig. 1. The process of developing a desk lamp representation. and signs for each of the different types of element connections were generated, as shown in Fig. 1(c). Figure 1(d) illustrates the sign graph of the desk lamp sample, with I denoting lamp shades, L denoting hinges, P denoting lamp pipes, and B denoting lamp bases; assembled type, composite type, and integrated type connections were applied Desk Lamp Sample Analysis The elements of the remaining samples were analyzed as described above, applying semiotics to the desk lamp samples; the numbers of elements corresponding to the 76 samples were then summarized, as shown in Table 4. Subsequent analysis revealed that most of the desk lamp samples were composed of three elements, and that the second highest number of samples comprised seven elements, as shown in Table 4. In addition, the additional features of the functional elements of the samples varied. Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3,

6 Table 3. The sign representations for the desk lamp samples. 462 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2017

7 Table 3. Continued Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3,

8 Table 4. Number of elements in the desk lamp samples No.of elements Total No.of samples DESK LAMP CREATIVE DESIGN PROCEDURE AND EXAMPLES In accordance with the results outlined in Section 2.4, a lamp design was completed following the desk lamp creative design procedure and with no more than three elements. The relations among the desk lamp elements were expressed using the graph theory, and design restrictions were established Desk Lamp Design Restrictions The design restrictions for the three-element desk lamp are summarized as follows: 1. There should be at least one element for the lamp shade (I). 2. There should be at least one element for the lamp base (B). 3. The lamp shade (I) should be connected to only one element. 4. The lamp base (B) should be connected to only one element. 5. Other elements can be a hinge (L), a lamp pipe (P), or an additional function (F). 6. The assembled type of connection should be applied to connect the elements Design Implementation In this section, the incorporation of design restrictions of desk lamp, presented in Section 4.1, into the actual design is described. The graph theory approach was applied for implementing the design, and the element connections featured in this design case were determined. 1. The number of elements were verified. 2. The designated elements were introduced in sequence. 3. Other elements were introduced in sequence. 4. The connections were introduced. Again, no more than three elements were used in this desk lamp design. There are two types of element graphs and each element is represented by a dot in Fig. 2. Fig. 2. Element graph. 464 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2017

9 Fig. 3. Labeling the lamp shade element. After drawing the dots, in accordance with the design restrictions, one of the elements was labeled as the lamp shade (I). Figure 3 was created by labeling the lamp shade element in Fig. 2. After labeling the first element, the next design restriction was implemented: at least one element should be the lamp base. Therefore, one of the remaining two elements was labeled as the lamp base (B). Figure 4 was created by labeling one of the elements as the lamp shade in Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Labeling the lamp base. After labeling two of the elements, the last element could be a hinge (L), a lamp pipe (P), or an additional function (F). Thus, all three elements were labeled, and three element-labeling graphs were produced. Figure 5 was created by labeling the lamp base element in Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Labeling other elements. After all element signs were labeled, the other criteria had to be fulfilled. One of the criteria was for the elements to be connected by the assembled type of connection; therefore, the three semiotic elements were connected accordingly. For example, the one design restriction was that the lamp shade could not be connected to the lamp base; this restriction was taken into consideration when defining the interaction between the lamp shade and the lamp base. Accordingly, Fig. 6 was created by connecting the elements shown in Fig. 5. Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3,

10 Fig. 6. Types of connections between elements. Fig. 7. 3D rendering of desk lamp design shown in Fig. 6(b). As illustrated in Fig. 6, three desk lamp elements were used to design three possible desk lamps. From the three possible designs, the connections of elements shown in Fig. 6(b) were applied for further implementation Particularization Design In this step, the graph illustrated in Fig. 6(b), which comprises a lamp shade, lamp hinge, and lamp base, was used as an example for particularization. The concept with the 3D rendering is shown in Fig. 7. In the process for particularizing, although the form of the desk lamp may vary with different designers, the symbol representation of desk lamp remains unchanged. As the time and place of use have to be considered in the design of this desk lamp, the desk lamp design should be adjusted to suit the user; for example, the lamp shade could be rotated, and when the user opens the lamp shade, the lamp could become a desk lamp; another feature is light dimming by closing the lamp shade. As is shown, the lamp base is sloped inward to allow the placement of a few items on the lamp base. 5. CONCLUSIONS The functions of the desk lamps on the market are similar. In the current study, symbolic representation was used to determine the functional elements of desk lamps; the representations of these functional elements were created by applying signs and symbols throughout the process of development; finally, an innovative desk lamp was designed based on the principles of graph theory. The conclusions of the study are summarized below. 1. Sign and symbol representations of the functional elements and connections of desk lamps were created. 466 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2017

11 2. It was determined that most desk lamps contained three elements; in accordance with this finding, the following criteria were applied in subsequent desk lamp design: (1) at least one element should be the lamp shade (I), (2) one element should be the lamp base (B), and (3) the remaining element can be a hinge (L), a lamp pipe (P), or an additional function (F). 3. A three-element desk lamp was designed, with three options for innovative design being subsequently obtained. Of these three design options, one was chosen for particularization. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan, R.O.C) for supporting this research under grant MOST E and MOST E REFERENCES 1. Wu, C.Y., The Linkage of Product Attribute and Design Parameter Take Cellular Phone as an Example, MBA thesis, National Taipei University, Roozenburg, N.F.M. and Eekels, J., Product Design: Fundamentals and Methods, Wiley, Yang, Y.L., Mark theory and applications, Scientific Development, Vol. 478, pp , Lin, M.H., Sign and code in product design, Journal of Design, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp , Hsiao, M.Y., Product semiotic and deconstruction, Journal of Design and Environment, No. 1, pp , Lin, F.H., Numbers on the graph, Mathematics Spread, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 1 15, Liu, N.T. and Wu, C.T., On the symbolized representation of innovative bicycle with functional elements characteristics for creative design, Transaction of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp , Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 41, No. 3,