투고일_2021.08.10 심사기간_2021.09.01-14 게재확정일_2021.09.23 DOI https://doi.org/10.47294/KSBDA.22.5.16
A Study on The Modeling of Multifunctional Furniture Based on Affordance and Signifier 어포던스와 기표에 기초한 다기능 가구의 조형에 관한 연구
Wang, Qin_Design Innovation Department, Graduate School, Sejong University /
Kim, Jin Sung(Corresponding author)_Design Innovation Department, Graduate School, Sejong University
왕긴, 세종대학교 일반대학원 디자인이노베이션학과 / 김진성(교신저자), 세종대학교 일반대학원 디자인이노베이션학과차례 1. Introduction
1.1. Research Background and Purpose 1.2. Research Scope and Method
2. Analysis of Signifier and Affordance in Industrial Design 2.1. Affordance in Industrial Design
2.2. Signifier in Industrial Design
2.3. The Relationship between Signifier and Affordance in Industrial Design
3. Analysis of The Modeling of Multifunctional Furniture Based on Signifier and Affordance
3.1. The Necessity of Analysing Multifunctional Furniture Modeling Based on Signifier and Affordance
3.2. Analysis of The Elements of Multifunctional Furniture Modeling Based on Signifier and Affordance
3.2.1. The Role of Color as Signifier 3.2.2. The Role of Material as Signifier 3.2.3. The Role of Shape as Signifier
4. Enlightenment to The Modeling Design of Multifunctional Furniture in Future 5. Conclusion
References
A Study on The Modeling of Multifunctional Furniture Based on Affordance and Signifier 어포던스와 기표에 기초한 다기능 가구의 조형에 관한 연구
Wang, Qin_Design Innovation Department, Graduate School, Sejong University /
Kim, Jin Sung(Corresponding author)_Design Innovation Department, Graduate School, Sejong University
왕긴, 세종대학교 일반대학원 디자인이노베이션학과 / 김진성(교신저자), 세종대학교 일반대학원 디자인이노베이션학과ABSTRACT
Keywords affordance signifier multifunctional
furniture modeling
As multifunctional furniture has flexible forms and could save space, its proportion in daily life is constantly increasing. However, in order to cater to the minimalist design trend, the rich information that the modeling of multifunctional furniture should contain is always ignored, which causes users to have a series of usage problems because of cognitive friction when facing
“simple” styling. In order to allow the usefulness and usability of multifunctional furniture to be easily perceived by users, the authors conducted a relevant study on the modeling of multifunctional furniture from the perspective of signifier and affordance. The research method of this study is a combination of literature review and case analysis. The authors first sorted out the relationship between signifier and affordance in industrial design through related literature.
Then, the authors combined different cases of multifunctional furniture, to analyze the role of the three core elements(shape, color and material) of the modeling as signifiers that carry information specifying affordances during the functional transformation. Finally, the authors found that the modeling of multifunctional furniture can form signifiers with rich information that clearly conveys the corresponding affordances, which is helpful to guide users to form natural interactions with multifunctional furniture. And the authors also put forward the following design steps for multifunctional furniture modeling. Step 1: the functions of multifunctional furniture should be clarified based on the needs of target users, and the actions that users need to perform to switch between different functions should also be determined. The first step is the key to realizing usefulness. Step 2: the modeling of multifunctional furniture should be constructed through different combinations of shapes, colors and materials, which should fully convey the information of the functionality, action possibilities and the operating positions of the corresponding actions. The second step is the key to realizing ease of use. However, these two steps still need to be further deepened in future studies.
요약
중심어 어포던스 기표 다기능 가구 조형
다기능 가구는 형태가 유연하고 공간을 절약할 수 있어 일상생활에서 비중이 꾸준히 늘고 있다. 하지 만 미니멀리즘 디자인((minimalist design) 트렌드에 맞추기 위해 다기능 가구의 조형(modeling)에 담겨야 할 다양한 정보가 항상 무시되고 있다. 이 때문에 사용자들이 ‘심플한(simple)’ 조형에 직면할 경우 인식 마찰로 인해 사용상의 문제가 생길 수 있다. 이 연구의 목적은 사용자가 다기능 가구의 유 용성(usefulness)과 편리함(usability)을 더 쉽게 감지할 수 있도록 하는 것이다. 저자들은 다기능 가 구의 조형에 대해 어포던스(affordance)와 기표(signifier)의 관점에서 연구를 진행했다. 이 연구는 문 헌 검토와 사례 분석을 서로 결합하는 방법을 응용하였다. 저자들은 우선 관련 문헌을 통해 기표와 어 포던스 관계를 정리했다. 그런 다음, 이들은 다기능 가구의 사례별로 조형의 세 가지 핵심 요소(모양·
색·재료)가 기능 전환 과정에서 어포던스를 지정하는 정보를 전달하는 지표의 역할을 분석했다. 마지 막으로, 그들은 다기능 가구의 조형이 해당 어포던스를 명확하게 전달하는 풍부한 정보로 기표를 형성 할 수 있다는 것을 발견했는데, 이는 사용자가 가구와 자연스러운 상호작용을 형성하도록 안내하는 데 도움이 된다. 또한, 그들은 다기능 가구 조형을 위해 다음과 같은 설계 단계를 제시했다. 1 단계: 다기 능 가구의 기능은 대상 이용자(target user)의 요구에 근거하여 명확히 해야 하며, 사용자가 다른 기 능 간에 전환하기 위해 수행해야 하는 동작도 결정해야 한다. 이 단계는 유용성을 실현하는 관건이다.
2 단계: 다기능 가구의 조형은 모양과 색상, 소재의 조합을 통해 구성하고 기능성(functionality)과 동
작 가능성(action possibilities), 그에 맞는 동작의 조작 위치 등을 충분히 전달해야 한다. 이 단계가
사용 편의성을 실현하는 관건이다. 그러나 이 두 단계는 향후 연구에서 아직 더 심화돼야 한다.
1. Introduction
1.1. Research Background and Purpose
As the name suggests, multifunctional furniture is furniture with multiple functions, and it has taken shape in ancient times, such as the X-shaped folding stool that is easy to carry in ancient Egypt, the modular furniture “Yanji(燕幾)” and knock-down furniture
“Kuang Ji(匡幾)” in ancient China. However, it was in the 1980s that developed countries such as European countries and the United States set a trend of multifunctional furniture.
And now, because of a series of reasons such as scarcity of land resources and rising housing prices, small apartments are gradually popularized. As a result, multifunctional furniture has become increasingly popular because of its advantages of flexibility and space saving. With the continuous development of science and technology and the continuous changes of people's needs, the functions of multifunctional furniture are becoming increasingly diverse, and the forms presented are becoming increasingly varied.
For example, multifunctional smart furniture combined with digital technology or multifunctional high-tech furniture combined with new materials or new processing technologies. But at present, many multifunctional furniture on the market integrate as many functions as possible on the one hand, and on the other hand, they blindly pursue a minimalist style(Zhang, L. & Lv X., 2017). Accordingly, users always overlook their
“hidden” functions and they often encounter various usage problems when switching between functions(Ding, L., 2013). Obviously, the modeling of this kind of multifunctional furniture brings a lot of cognitive friction to users, resulting in unsmooth interactions between users and furniture, and even frequent errors. This kind of phenomenon is incompatible with the high-quality user experience that people are pursuing in the experience economy era. It is essentially because the modeling of this kind of multifunctional furniture does not serve as a communication medium well that the usefulness and usability of such furniture can not be perceived by users correctly and clearly.
Mcgrenere & Ho(2000, p.6) once proposed “A useful design contains the right functions required for users to perform their jobs efficiently and to accomplish their goals. The usefulness of a design is determined by what the design affords (that is, the possibilities for action in the design) and whether these affordances match the goals of the user and allow the necessary work to be accomplished. The usability of a design can be enhanced by clearly designing the perceptual information that specifies these affordances.”.
Norman(2013, p.14) also pointed out “Affordances determine what actions are possible.
Signifiers communicate where the action should take place.”. In addition, Malvela(2016,
p.2) put forward “Perceived usability is a concept that describes product or service design
in terms of how people understand its usefulness and ease of use. These understandings
are derived from the properties and functions of objects, i.e. affordances, offered by
different clues, i.e. signifiers, alluding to how the objects may be used.”. It can be seen
that signifiers and affordances are the key factors for the usefulness and ease of use
of products. Based on this, the authors proposed to study the modeling of multifunctional
furniture from the perspective of affordance and signifier, hoping to find inspiration from
it, to explore the design strategy of multifunctional interactive furniture with signifier
and affordance as the starting point. It is hoped that this paper could attract more people
to pay attention to the role of multifunctional furniture modeling as an information carrier
which helps users to perceive relevant affordances clearly.
1.2. Research Scope and Method
This paper focuses on studying the modeling of multifunctional furniture, namely the combination of shapes, materials, and colors. Modeling is an important medium for realizing the natural communication between people and multifunctional furniture, but its importance has not been appreciated enough. Due to the rise of smart furniture, more and more scholars or designers focus on the research on the interaction between users and multifunctional furniture in the community of HCI, so furniture has gradually been regarded as containers or pedestals for computing, which leads to that the important role of furniture as communication vectors has been ignored(Huang et al., 2009, p.3), let alone the modeling that is an important manifestation of furniture as communication vectors.
More importantly, the successful realization of the modeling of multifunctional furniture as an information carrier is a prerequisite for users to directly perceive the functions and ease of use of such furniture without thought. And affordances and signifiers are closely related to functionality and ease of use, so it is necessary to study the modeling of furniture from the perspective of affordance and signifier. Therefore, the authors first clarified the relationship between signifier and affordance in the field of industrial design through related literature. Then, starting from the three core elements that make up the modeling of multifunctional furniture: shape, color and material, they analyzed their role as signifiers and the affordances signified. Finally, based on the above analysis, the modeling design strategy of multifunctional furniture based on signifier and affordance is summarized.
2. Analysis of Signifier and Affordance in Industrial Design 2.1. Affordance in Industrial Design
The perceptual psychologist, Gibson, first proposed the word “affordance” in his book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception in 1979. He believes that affordance means the action possibility between the actor and the environment, which exists independently of the actor's needs and ability to perceive it, but is related to the actor's action capability.
At the same time, he pointed out that the formation of direct perception is determined by the coexistence of affordance and information indicating it (Gibson, J. J., 2015). On this basis, Norman was the first to introduce affordance, the proper term in ecological psychology, to industrial design, and it caused great effects in the design community.
Although Norman’s interpretation of affordance in design was somewhat ambiguous at the
beginning, which caused some designers and scholars to misunderstand and misuse
affordance, he has never stopped to make people correctly recognize the role of affordance
in design(Mcgrenere, J. & Ho, W., 2000). The following is his latest definition of
affordance in the revised version of The Design of Everyday Things: “The term affordance
refers to the relationship between a physical object and a person (or for that matter, any
interacting agent, whether animal or human, or even machines and robots). An affordance
is a relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that
determine just how the object could possibly be used... The presence of an affordance
is jointly determined by the qualities of the object and the abilities of the agent that is
interacting.” (Norman, D. A., 2013, p.11). Therefore, we can say that affordance is the
action possibility between users and products, i.e. the interactive relationship between
users and products, which is closely related to the functions and the actions users
implement to products. Norman affirmed that the affordance proposed by Gibson crossed
the subjective and objective dichotomy, and his insights on affordance made us realize that although affordance is not affected by human experience, cognitive level, cultural background, etc., the ability to perceive affordance, i.e., the ability to perceive information specifying affordance is related to a person's experience, cognitive level, and cultural background(Mcgrenere, J. & Ho, W., 2000). Norman also pointed out that the visibility of affordance is very important in design(Norman, D. A., 2013).
2.2. Signifier in Industrial Design
Signifier is a proper term in the field of semiotics. Norman was not the first to introduce signifier into the field of industrial design, but he was the first to combine signifier and affordance and use them in interaction design at the same time(Norman, D. A., 2013), which gives the authors corresponding inspiration. Actually, as early as the 1980s, the field of industrial design gave birth to a discipline that applied the method of language research to product design, i.e. product semantics, which focuses on the meaning of product language. K. Krippendorf in the United States and Professor R. Butter in Germany clearly proposed the concept of Product Semantics in 1983(Yu, J., 2009). And the Industrial Designers Association of America(IDSA) gave the following definition in the
“Product Semantics Seminar” held in 1984: “Product semantics is the study of the symbolic characteristics of the form of man-made objects in the context of use, and how to apply it to industrial design. It breaks through the simple practice of traditional design theories that put human factors into ergonomics, and broadens the scope of ergonomics;
it also breaks through the traditional ergonomics that only considers human physical and physiological functions, and at the same time penetrates design factors into human psychological and spiritual factors”(Su, H., 2004, p.35; Yu, J., 2009, p.23). The essence of product semantics is the information transmission of the external form of the product.
How to use modeling to effectively convey the information (meaning) of the product to the audience, to enable dialogue between the product and the audience, is an important content of product semantics. To understand the product from the perspective of semiotics, the modeling of the product can be seen as a system of signs. Like other signs, it is also composed of the signifier part and the signified part. The signifier of a product refers to the visual, tactile and even auditory elements that can stimulate people, which are composed of the shape, color, material and other elements of the product. The signified of a product is the concept and impression that people form after receiving the above stimuli, i.e. the semantic value of the product. People's grasp of product semantics in use can be intuitive, empirical, or the result of thought. In short, product semantics is a theory that studies how the modeling of product arouses human emotions and how it guides human behavior, which ultimately makes design more scientific(Yu, J., 2009).
It can be seen that signifiers are the specific modeling of products that carry the semantic information(value and meaning) of the products.
2.3. The Relationship between Signifier and Affordance in Industrial Design
When discussing direct perception, Gibson attached great importance to “information
pickup”, and believed that the composition and layout of surfaces of things convey
information about how people interact with the environment, i.e. the information indicating
the affordances between the actor and the environment(Gibson, J. J., 2015). However,
he did not pay enough attention to the specific form in which this kind of information
is presented to people. Norman realized that the significance of affordance in design lies in the presentation of information indicating affordances. In this regard, Norman introduced the term “perceived affordance” and “signifier”, but the authors believe that
“perceived affordance” would be better described as “perceived information specifying affordance”. Because affordance is something similar to “value” and “meaning” (Gibson, J. J., 2015), which needs a carrier conveying relevant information to be perceived by people. The specific form that the carrier is presented in people's eyes can be seen as signifier, and the “meaning” it conveys is signified, which can be understood as affordance here. When affordance is perceived as signified, it is a subconscious perception based on direct perception. So in summary, the authors put forward that the signifier in industrial design is a concrete manifestation used to visualize affordance, a clue that guides users' subconscious actions, and determines the ease of use of the product. And affordance is the “meaning” and “value” of the product embodied in the signifier, which people can directly perceive without thought, i.e. the action possibility provided by the product. It can resonate with people's needs and determines the usefulness of the product. In industrial design, the use of appropriate signifiers to fully visualize affordances can stimulate users’ subconscious behavior and realize the natural interaction between people and products. Their relationship can be summarized with the following diagram
<Figure 1>.
3. Analysis of The Modeling of Multifunctional Furniture Based on Signifier and Affordance
3.1. The Necessity of Analysing Multifunctional Furniture Modeling Based on Signifier and Affordance
There are rich interactive relationships between multifunctional furniture and users.
Judging from the state of the furniture itself, multifunctional furniture not only has the same “static” characteristics as most ordinary furniture, it also has the “moving”
characteristics. Moreover, from the perspective of the modeling of multifunctional furniture, it often requires users to use certain “actions” to realize the conversion of its functions(Zhou et al., 2012). It can be seen that the core of multifunctional furniture is to allow users to easily unlock its multiple functions and easily realize flexible conversion between various functions. The key to allowing users to easily unlock its multiple functions is that the user can perceive its functionality, and the key to allowing users to subconsciously realize interaction with multifunctional furniture without too much thinking is that the multifunctional furniture must be easy to use. However, there are many furniture on the market that both want to pursue the so-called minimalist look and also want to be compatible with multiple functions as much as possible, which leads to the insufficiency of usability. Such kind of multifunctional furniture not only makes the user perceive the corresponding functionality difficultly, but also increases the difficulty
<Figure 1> The Relationship between Signifier and Affordance, (adapted from Mcgrenere, J. & Ho, W., 2000, p.184)
of implementing the corresponding action even if the user understands how to operate through the instructions. This kind of problematic multifunctional furniture not only brings inconvenience to the user's daily life, but also causes some functions to be idle due to the laborious and time-consuming function conversion, which causes a great waste of resources. Take the following figure as an example. It is a minimalist modern multifunctional table with 8 stools sold on Taobao.com (China's popular online shopping and retail platform). The authors made the following table based on the corresponding evaluation of users, mainly from the perspective of unclear functions and lack of ease of use caused by its modeling. Therefore, it is very necessary to study the modeling of multifunctional furniture from the point of view of signifier and affordance that determine usefulness and usability.
<Figure 2> The Minimalist Modern Multifunctional Table with 8 Stools
The Problematic Part Specific Problems for Users Reasons for The Problems
1
The nested combination of black stools and white stools, such as
“a”
Taking the built-in black stool out of the white stool is time-consuming and laborious. It takes two steps:
first open the side panel (such as
“c”), and then grab the side panel to pull it out, but this process can also easily damage the hinge structure of the side panel.
The user needs to use instructions to turn one stool into two stools.
The modeling does not give the user sufficient information to show that the black stool can be taken out and how to take it out.
2
The drawer doors that can be opened on both long sides of the tea table, such as "b"
The storage function of the lower level of the tea table is often overlooked. The drawer door can only be opened along the lower edge, which will make the back of user's fingers rub against the ground.
The modeling does not give the user sufficient information to show the openability of the drawer door.
The setting of the position of the hand when the action of "opening"
is performed is not combined with the use scene.
3
The openable side panel of the built-in black stool, such as “c”
With the help of instructions, the user knows that the side panel is opened by pressing. In order to find the correct pressing position, it is often necessary to try several times.
The modeling does not give the user enough information to show the openability of the side panel, where to place the hand and how to open it.
<Table 1> Problems Caused by Modeling of The Minimalist Modern Multifunctional Table
3.2. Analysis of The Elements of Multifunctional Furniture Modeling Based on Signifier and Affordance
The modeling of multifunctional furniture is not only the carrier of its overall appearance,
but also the conveyer of its internal value and meaning. The “value” and “meaning” in this
paper mainly refer to affordances. Like ordinary single-function furniture, the modeling
of multifunctional furniture is also composed of three key elements: shape, color and
material. These three types of elements form different signifiers through diverse
combinations, which convey to users the action possibilities between them and furniture, i.e. affordances. That is to say, for the usefulness and usability of multifunctional furniture to be clearly perceived by people, certain signifiers must be formed to convey enough information to people, which can tell users what functions the furniture has, how to operate, where the corresponding actions can be implemented, etc. Namely, users can understand the manual operating mode, operating position and so on only through the modeling in sight, which will cause consumers to resonate in the way of use and emotion, so as to achieve natural communication with furniture.
3.2.1. The Role of Color as Signifier
Color has a strong guiding and prompting effect in multifunctional furniture. Designers can assign different colors to different components for functional division, which can guide people to operate different components to achieve different functions (see Figure 3, white indicates fixed bookshelf, colored indicates movable tables and chairs), or use different colors in a certain part that they want to emphasize to attract users' attention, which can guide users to implement corresponding actions there (see Figure 4, the conspicuous orange indicates the operating position of the “pull” action).
3.2.2. The Role of Material as Signifier
Material is the material basis of multifunctional furniture modeling. The material can convey the corresponding visual and tactile feelings to the user through its own texture.
Because although texture is caused by touch, in people's visual experience, vision can perceive different textures through the experience transferred by touch, so texture belongs to the category of vision and touch. Visual texture is the synthesis and complement of tactile texture. When there are more and more tactile experiences, experience memories will be formed. Then, for the familiar material surface organization, there is no need to rely on the direct touch of the skin, and the texture of the material can be judged based on the past tactile experience and visual impression, thereby forming the visual texture of the material(Yu, J., 2009). Therefore, designers can also give different components with various material textures (often combined with colors) for functional division to guide users to operate different components to achieve different functions (see Figure 5, the marble material refers to the table, while the leather material refers to the chairs). In addition, multifunctional furniture can directly convey the possibility of folding or other actions to users through the texture of some materials (see Figure 6, this kind of elastic fabric material directly gives the user a visual hint that it can be folded, which comes from the accumulation of experience).
3.2.3. The Role of Shape as Signifier
From the perspective of pure form, form is presented in four ways: point, line, plane and volume, and they don't have any meaning in themselves. People's cognition of shape is the movement and reflection of the characteristics of shape in the human brain and psychology. This kind of reflection is one's own subjective feelings, thinking methods and thinking experience formed by gradually grasping natural and social characteristics, including intuitive reflection, experience reflection and impression, etc., and is affected by social, cultural, and moral factors(Pan, C., 2002). Therefore, people's perception of form is affected by the experience and knowledge accumulated in life, which is also
<Figure 4>
Multifunctional Cabinet (https://www.pinterest.com)
<Figure 5> Multifunctional Rubik's Cube Stool (https://m.tb.cn/h.f2M7v8o?
sm=fecd6c)
<Figure 6>
Convertible Sofa “Sosia”, by Campeggi
(http://shejiyizhou.com/arti cle-897-1.html)
<Figure 3>
Multifunctional Furniture "As if from nowhere...", by Orla Reynolds
(https://pin.it/5qj8i21)
affected by the usage context at the time. French semioticsist R. Barthes(1977) put forward in his book Elements of Semiology that since the beginning of society, any use of physical objects will become a symbol of such use. Therefore, the authors believe that some forms involved and some actions performed when transforming the functions of multifunctional furniture also have a corresponding signifier-signified relationship. Some belong to logical causal relationships, while some are derived from life experience. For example, when someone sees an object with wheels, he will move it subconsciously based on needs, and when someone sees an object with a handle, he will subconsciously pull it based on needs. The authors listed some signifier-signified relationships between some shapes and actions triggered, as shown in the following table:
Functional Conversion of Multifunctional Furniture
Shapes as Signifiers (strengthened by red)
Actions Triggered in Certain Usage Context
1
⇒
handle
open the drawer
recess
pull the table panel back
2
⇒
pole
lift the chair or the lamp
the edge of panel
lift the small table
hole
lift or lay down
3
⇓
linear protrusion of leather
pull the stool out
<Table 2> The Relationship between Shapes and Actions Triggered during Functional Conversion
