The Application of Product Semantics in Modern Design

[Abstract]: Through the discussion of the occurrence and development of the product semantics, this paper presents the display of outstanding industrial design works, and proposes that modern industrial design should be based on ergonomics and aesthetics, and designed to contribute to daily life and give People bring joyous products that live in harmony with the environment.

【Keywords】: Product semantics, symbols, symbols, functions

Design is the art of the times. In modern society, industrial development has entered the high-tech stage. Handicrafts, industries, and high-tech industries have been integrated. Unprecedented attention has been paid to sustainable development, attention to nature, and harmony with the environment. Informatization has rapidly been applied to various aspects of human life. At the level, the advent of the digital era has put the design in an era of reconstructing language. Undoubtedly, well-designed items are the center of today's visual culture. However, products that are immersed in people's lives are not always satisfactory. Many products are confusing to users and may seem difficult to understand. What product, or how to use it, the proliferation of "black box" phenomenon in electronic equipment, put forward more and higher requirements for designers. Hannu kahonen, a famous Finnish industrial designer, said: “I am bored with those 'excessive designs' and anti-natural forms of design. They make the products more complicated and difficult to use. Ideal in my opinion. The products should contribute to daily life and bring joy to people as much as possible.” How to use design symbols to create products that meet the individual needs of modern humans is an issue that contemporary industrial designers must seriously consider. The essence of product semantics lies in revealing or implying the internal structure of the product through the design of the product's external visual form, so that the product's function is clarified, and the human-machine interface is simple and easy to understand, thus releasing the user's understanding of product operation. Confused, with a more explicit visual image and a more symbolic form design, to convey to the user more cultural connotations, so as to achieve a harmonious unity of man, machine and environment.

The so-called semantic (Semantic) as the name suggests, that is, the meaning of the language, the meaning; Semantics (Semantics) is to explore and study the linguistic meaning of the discipline. The concept of “product semantics” is a term borrowed from linguistics. Its theoretical basis derives from the theory of semiotics. However, its emergence has social, historical, and philosophical backgrounds. The study of product semantics began in the 1960s.

After World War I, the lack of materialism in the world and the functionalism advocated by modernism are in conformity with historical conditions, satisfying and promoting the development of industrialization. At that time, the focus of product design was on "physical function", and ergonomics was industrial design. The theoretical fulcrum, between 1920 and 1950, functionalist design was an important stage in the history of human design. With the development of society and economy, the advent of the consumer era, and the increase in social wealth, people’s requirements for products have undergone fundamental changes. At the same time, over-exploitation in the 1960s has caused a crisis in the global environment, and eco-design has been proposed. Practice at all levels of design. During this period, people began to pay attention to environmental functions and paid attention to the impact of industry on the environment. In the 1980s, people began to emphasize "communication and dialogue." The design community also introduced various new disciplines: sociology, ecology, psychology, behavior, linguistics, information theory, etc. Meanwhile, electronic products The emergence of modeling and function has lost the inevitable close contact, resulting in the proliferation of a single "black box" phenomenon, the emergence of commodity homogenization calls more to meet the user's inner product, modernism over emphasis on the "function" and Excessive ignorance of “formality” has led to rough, indifferent and rigid industrial products. Some people described it as an era of “mass production, mass purchase, mass consumption, and large-scale poisoning of numerous environments”. Post-modernism is here. When it appeared, it focused on the spirit of the subject, the context, and the symbolic semantics, which had a major impact on the theory of product semantics.

In 1983 Klaus Krippendorf and R. Butter formally proposed the concept of “product semantics” and defined as “product semantics is the study of the form of artificial objects in the context of use. "The symbolic characteristics of China and the application of this to the design." In 1984, Krippendorf further defined the product's semantics. He believes that product semantics is a new awakening to old things, and products must not only have physics Functionality should also be able to reveal or suggest to the user how to use it. At the same time, the product should be symbolic and can constitute a symbolic environment in people's lives.

The basic structure of product semantic theory comes from the language symbol system. Semiotic theory advocates studying all disciplines and phenomena from the perspective of symbols. Saussure, the father of semiotics, said that "language is a symbolic system for expressing ideas." He believes that each symbol has two levels of meaning. One is signifier (also known as signifier). The symbolic form in which the object appears; the second is the signified (also called meaning-finding, symbol signified) refers to the meaning of the object hidden behind the symbol, namely, ideological concepts, cultural connotations, symbolic meaning.

Krippendorf's concept of product semantics is based on Saussure's concept of symbols. He divides the user's understanding of the product into four stages. A. Product identification stage: The user distinguishes the product type through corresponding visual clues; B. Self-verification stage: The user actually operates the item (or its controller) and then observes the success or failure feedback of these different degrees of operation; C. Finding a new form Stage: The user is familiar with its working principle in use, and may also find new ways of use; D. Interpretation of symbolic semantics: Users interpret their products based on their own types, personal understanding, social characteristics, and aesthetic values. Product content. From the above four stages, we can see that the user has a preliminary understanding of the product through the visual impression of the product form (what product is), and will gradually become more comprehensive as the self-verification experiment is the actual operation of the item process. In-depth expansion of product knowledge, while the initial visual impressions are updated, enhanced or resentment, exclusion. All initial expectations of the product's form or semantic notation are verified as true or false during the self-validation phase. If the designer's original intention and the sensory experience after the user's verification are agreed, the product's form successfully expresses its Connotation, also because of this consistency, the user has to continue in-depth operation and research, only to find new forms of possibility. Finally, the user will give an objective evaluation of the product, of course, this evaluation is affected by the user's own aesthetic taste, cultural accomplishment, personality traits, and at the same time influenced by social conventions. With the advancement of modern social economic and cultural globalization and the development of informatization, the regional and cultural restrictions that affect product design will become smaller and smaller. However, carrying forward national culture is a historical responsibility that every designer must bear. In this regard, industrial design in Northern Europe and Japan is well done.

Excellent industrial design has systematically and comprehensively analyzed the semantics of the product and fully uses the design symbols to achieve a high degree of unity in the function and form of the product. Not only reflects the symbolic meaning and cultural connotation of the product, but also reflects the care of the design to the person-user. The transponders designed by American designers Lisa Krohn and Tucher Viemeister in 1987 are classic examples of the use of "product semantics." This is a combination of a handset and a transponder. It is designed to look like a phone book. Through new technologies, it combines the functions of recording, playing, and copying letters. It retains some of the cognitive functions of traditional telephones, but There has been a big change in the content. It can be used for page turning and switching between different contents during page turning. The keys are inserted through the standard holes of the page and are universal. They are concise, novel, dynamic, and rich in levels. Familiar feelings attract users to master new technologies. IBM's "ThinkPadTransNote" notebook computer won the Gold Award for IF Design in Germany in 2002. This product uses the characteristics of the folder in the shape, the notebook computer and electronic paper pen writer combination, the user can easily write, draw, process, store, send files. Considering the user's psychology fully in design, the model is simple and the semantics are clear. Designed by Italian designer Massimo Iosa Ghini, the “Mum” armrest sofa is simple, honest, and mild in color. It symbolizes mother’s kindness and tolerance, warmth to the child, and modernity for the body and mind. People provide a place for renewed energy.

The use of product semantics is also reflected in the details of the product. Such as Canon C.BIO type camera, its organic form is almost integrated with the human body, not only in the shape of giving a delicate and delicate, intimate feeling, in function also has impressive convenience. The "philishave reflex action" razor, introduced by Philips in 1996, has a sleek and atmospheric appearance. Its side has perfect consistency with the side of the male's head and neck, and the button to adjust the switch is on the man's throat. At the festival, there is a protrusion on the button that increases friction and facilitates pushing, and clearly indicates the mode of operation of the product. The following is the “face”-interface of some products launched by Philips from 1990 to 1998, from which we can easily see the clear indication symbols of the operating system for users.

M.Mccoy discusses the five issues of product manufacturing as the product of product semantic design: (1) Environment (information context), including product size, texture, color, shape and how to coordinate with the surrounding environment; (2) memory ( Memory): Is product modeling familiar, intimate, and whether the product has a historical continuity in culture or form; (3) Operational product modeling in aspects of local control, display, appearance, material, color, etc. Whether the semantic expression is clear, easy to understand, and easy to operate; (4) Does the external modeling of the product declare the operation of the internal invisible organization, whether it reveals or implies how the product works? (5) Ritual of use Whether the product's shape implies the cultural connotation or symbolic meaning of the product. Therefore, when we use symbols to design products, we can consider the above aspects. Modern architects have summarized a set of symbolic innovations in their creation and practice. The first is “repetition and redundancy”, which is to repeatedly use the repeated information on the human senses, so that the information is strongly transmitted to users, which is more effective for the acceptance and understanding of new symbols; the second is “deformation and "Splitting" refers to the transformation and division of symbols that people are used to, and reorganizing them into new languages. It inherits both tradition and innovation. The third is "deep and interpretative." Architectural symbolists believe that art must be difficult to understand It is difficult for people to understand and to be novel, difficult to understand but understandable. The fourth is "multi-price and pluralism," that is, art must be created and cannot be imitated. These tactics can also be borrowed from industrial design. The design of the Olympic Torch in Australia's 2000 Industrial Design Awards will sculpt the characteristics of Sydney's coastal cities and the form of the Sydney Opera House. They are concise, stylish, and perfectly integrated in function and form.

It must be noted that design is for the general public. The purpose of product design is to make people's lives more convenient and beautiful. The famous Finnish designer Yrjo Kukkapuro said that "the designer's work should not be a crazy, useless thing." Today, what people need is still beautiful and functional. , products full of humanistic care and environmental awareness. At the same time, we cannot “for semantics and semantics,” and our use of traditional symbols must be based on the understanding of traditional culture with modern ideas to transform and refine. The basis for our design today is still ergonomics and aesthetics. .



Author/-Zhang Junli (Department of Art and Design, Wuhan Polytechnic University)