Conciseness in Design: Discussion of Trade-offs in Product Design

-- Zhang Xuchen, Chen Jianguo (School of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University)


I do not know when it started, industrial design practitioners suddenly felt very friendly to the eggs. Because of its complete ellipsoid, no matter how you change the observation angle, you will feel a simple form, but at the same time, there are also rich changes.

If the products placed around us are all egg-like, complete, simple, and concise, it makes people feel gracious and enjoyable. Perhaps this is the designer's ideal.

First, the demand for simple products

Ancient humans, grinding stones as a knife, cut wood into arrows. Seized the essence of creation. Through application, sensation, and handicrafts, it is never going to be carved. "Shelter" was bold and "take" was streamlined. Even with some decorations, they all provide profound content and serve the functional structure. With the development of industry, Bauhaus founder Gropez broke the architectural model of Rococo and the Renaissance. It suits the strict requirements of the modern world and saves materials, expenses, labor and time as much as possible, and proposes the mental labor of designers. The contribution is expressed in a well-ordered layout and with a good proportion of body mass, rather than redundant decoration.

The era is advancing. The level of human life is improving, the pace of life is accelerating, and the efficiency of production is making rapid progress. However, at the same time, it is faced with energy shortages and increasing industrial waste. All of these require that products that accompany human life and work should be concise, lively, novel and welcoming, have a modern sense of relevance to the information age, and include a spirit that is consistent with modern life.

Second, the concise connotation

Product design, "take" is much more complex, "shelving" is much simpler, and "choose" is appropriate, it is simple and cordial.

As a product, there are several aspects such as its own shape and its design language for information transfer between designers and products, product processing materials, product process assembly, product packaging and transportation, and product function structure. If we can make the product's shape highly concise, the design language is concise and general, the materials are fully taken into consideration for environmental protection requirements, the process assembly process of the product is fully simplified, the packaging is convenient, the transportation is taken into consideration, the internal structure of the product is simplified, and interestingly Complete the product's functional instructions. Then our design will be accepted by modern consumers.

Third, the simple method

1 Simple shape

The appearance of the product is a manifestation of the product's internal functional structure. It directly affects people's understanding and use of product function instructions, and is closely linked with the processing and assembly of products. The revolution in the electronics industry has made many of the products' internal clumsy mechanical structures replaced by tiny electronic computer chips. Since human beings no longer spend a lot of valuable materials to complete a functional structure, it greatly simplifies the process assembly process. On the other hand, because the invisible thing such as electronics liberates the designers, it is easy for designers to lose their “rationality” and to emotionally design the shape of the product without considering how to abandon some unnecessary decoration and facilitate the process. cut costs. This has led to many complications and the introduction of decorative product forms.

Products that are truly vital and appealing should be a combination of highly succinct shapes with a set of natural, rich and powerful design languages ​​that will enable the product to establish a relationship with its own technology and culture so that operators can see The moment of contact with the product is clear. The most efficient way to grasp and operate the product is precisely the rhythm of modern life and work. All of this requires the abstract and simple morphological features of the designer and masters the sense of choice.

The female university student Lisa Crohn (1. Isa Krohn), who studied at the Cranbrook School of Art in the United States, won a first prize of US$100,000 in the Finnish Plastic Arts Competition. The telephone set she designed abandoned the unconventional style that traditional products often exhibited, but borrowed from everyday life to make it more concise and practical. The phone is modeled after an open book, which strongly demonstrates the continuity of information exchange in culture, from yesterday's printing methods to today's electronic media.

From here we understand that as a product, it is important to complete its function, but it is even more crucial that designers consider how the product performs its function. This approach is reflected in the appearance of the product.

Taking the design of a human scale as an example. In the simple, seek rich, rich in seeking the purpose of simplicity. The overall shape of the abandonment of trapezoids and squares, to the minimum size of the machine core; to meet the limits of 95% of the human foot. With this as a parameter, a face that meets two circles is obtained. The pedal area and the display area are respectively satisfied. Make full use of the advantages of electronic display technology, breaking the habit of using a conventional human scale display panel to erect a height. Undoubtedly saves raw materials. The space is reduced, the full and concise shape facilitates the mold opening, is easy to package, and also brings a kind of intimacy.

In dealing with the transition between the pedal area and the display area, the specific shape is simple and subtle. Use ambient light sources to enrich its hierarchy. This simplifies the semantics and better completes the demarcation between the footrest area and the display area.

For the design of the footrest texture, we do not seek for whitewashing and strive to be whole and cordial. For the visual design, satisfying the sense of riding; Designing for the foot to meet the friction; Designed for clean-up and convenience.

The transparent colored plastic in the shape of a slightly convex eye covers the display area, the complex lines of the display panel are naturally masked, and the red color code is accepted by the eyes. The user is informed: "Do not step on the display area." The semantics are simple and friendly. Users are also happy to follow. The design authority of the Braun Electric Company in Germany, Ramons explained that a Braun coffee maker with many vertical lines on the surface explained that the appearance of the vertical line gives it a feeling not only of the soft and clear Greek column style. What's more important is that these lines increase their strength and hide. Making materials available for low-cost plastics reduces costs by nearly 70%.

The design proposal for each detail of the product may not be abandoned unless it presents more than two advantages. Only in this way, the product will complete the function instruction with a few “designs”, and the product will not be concise. burden.

2 simple function

With regard to the functional instructions that the product shoulders, today's commercialists blindly demand that the designers superimpose the functions, which will make the product's structure more and more complex and the quality degrade. This will affect the manifestation of the main functions and the products will become increasingly "tired."

Proper and natural functional matching, because the two functions have a common area, as long as it is concise, it will make people easy to accept. However, the superimposed function of transitional rigidity seems to be burdensome and vulgar.

Recently, Szildas, a company based in Salt Lake City, United States, has produced a new type of device that can lock bicycles and inflate bicycles. This design is as successful as the matching function of the recorder. The two functions have a "simultaneity" in people's use needs and there is an inherent connection between them.

But for home scales, body height and weight should be said to be harmonious. However, because of family use, body height changes (adults) are not as obvious as body weight. Increasing the number of processes, measured from the perspective of value engineering, increases the cost of production. Considering packaging, it is not convenient to carry. Finally, the function of measuring the height of the body is abandoned.

For the design of other products, this problem also exists, which requires the designer to keep a clear head, boldly abandoned, and carefully extracted. Such products will be simple and popular.

Fourth, the purpose and role of simplicity

1 The simple design is the guarantee of product vitality

The product has two factors of service life and form life. The industrial designer controls the entire form life and part of the product life of the product, and only the form life of the product is discussed here.

Designers launch a product that gives design life and determines the length of life of the product.

Some product designs are blindly decorated, blindly superimposed, cater to the tastes of a few people, and do not stand the test of time, such as a flash in the pan. More products are enduring for their pure form and perfect function.

It is worth mentioning that itching design. Itching is used on the back of the hand. The length is just enough to reach any part of the back of the human body in the form of a curved finger shape at the front and a hand grip at the back. The simple and gracious design makes the product have a strong vitality.

The concise design is able to give product life because it is refined and streamlined. It is a collection of major design factors that embodies the most essential elements of the product's function.

2 The simple design is for people to use more conveniently

The design of the product is designed for people, and all factors that are detrimental to people's use and operation will be drained.

We will benefit people