Fang Bin Guo
Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Title: Shifting product design from technology driven to user centre design
Biography
Biography: Fang Bin Guo
Abstract
Traditional industrial design is about functions and forms. Designers placed great emphasis on forms and aesthetics. However, technology innovation has shifted industrial design from the stage of technology driven to user centered design driven, this is also due to the functions of products are increasingly complex to interact, i.e. electrical/computers devices, mobile phones and multifunctional products. So that industrial design now emphasizes on bettering user experience. Don Norman defines user centered design as all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including the interface, the physical interaction and the manual. Technology revolution results in products are getting more complex, in particular those of multimodality interfaces include car dashboard and aircraft cockpits that displayed a number of information such as engine temperature, fuels level, speed etc. That challenges the user to recognize/understand the information. Human factor is the scientific discipline that concerned with the understanding of the interactions among humans and other elements of a system. The knowledge, in particular product semantics is a language that helps people to understand and interact with products easily and efficiently. Designers rely on this language to communicate with users; to express functions, reliabilities and characters through forms, material/textures and semiotics. This paper discusses user centered design and human factors knowledge, in particular product semantics and its application in product design; and reviewing a curriculum developed particularly focuses on user centered design within a BSc product design engineering programme.