Application of Product Semantics in Design

Abstract: By discussing the application of product semantics in design. It enables the designer to more accurately map the user's social attributes to the product form and develop products that are popular with the market, so that the perspective of product semantics is the source of product innovation design.

Keywords: product product design product semantics

Products are all industrially mass-produced items, which have three meanings: supplies, products, and commodities. The product design is to satisfy the user's use and application of the product, and is to study the relationship between people and things. Product design is a creative activity that combines science with art. In design activities, many disciplines such as science, psychology, marketing, physiology, ergonomics, sociology, and communication are involved. Therefore, it emphasizes that the design process must be analyzed rationally. It is necessary to jump out of the frame of experience, intuition, feeling, etc., and organically integrate these knowledge through various methods such as analysis, synthesis, induction, and judgment, so that products and people can live in harmony and serve people. Create more comfortable and reasonable ways of living and the sustainable development of human society. In order to achieve a natural and social society to achieve a more perfect harmony.

In today's commodity quality, people's requirements for products are not simply satisfied with the physical functions, but also have the spirit function. Through the product's shape, it can convey to the user how to use and symbolic visual language, so that the product can better meet the user's heart. People change their way of life through creation. At the same time, spiritual ideas are embodied in creation. It is the carrier of culture. However, many products on the market today are confusing to the user. If there are products that do not make the user well aware of the phenomenon or how to use it, these designers put forward more and higher requirements.

1 Product semantics

The study of product semantics began in the 6o century of the 20th century and was based on semiotic theory. Its appearance was influenced by multiple backgrounds of philosophy, society, and culture. The study of product semantics has replaced the modernism design with a focus on function-oriented thinking, which has enabled people to passively accept new training to adapt to new products. Changed the situation that matter is above the human emotion. The product semantics pursues that the product does not have physical capabilities, and it should also be able to reveal or suggest to the user how to use the product. At the same time, the product should have symbolic meaning and can embody the spiritual needs of the user and the symbol of the consumer culture and constitute people’s lives. Symbolic environment.

1.1 Product semantics concept

In 1983 Klaus Kdppendorf and R.But-ter formally put forward the concept of "product semantics" and defined it as the semantics of the study of man-made semantics. Use the symbolic characteristics in the context and apply this to the design u. It emphasizes a non-verbal communication between people and objects, revealing or suggesting the internal structure of the product through the visual language of the product's material, form, structure, color, and texture. The product features are clarified to make the man-machine interface simple and easy to understand, so as to relieve the user's confusion about the operation of the product, and to convey a more cultural connotation to the user with a clearer visual image and a more symbolic form design. At the same time, it creates a fun lifestyle, so as to achieve a harmonious unity of man, machine, and environment.

1.2 Meaning of product semantics

The significance of product semantics includes two aspects, namely. Show with and. Latent gesture.

1) The indication is to indicate the physical and physiological functional value of the product by designing the external appearance, color, and texture of the product. If the user distinguishes the product type, function, and operation mode based on visual experience and corresponding visual cues, these users can communicate their own operation purpose and accurate operation method to the user without relying on the explanation and the specification. .

2) The latent gesture is to display social, cultural, psychological and other symbolic values ​​through the product's own image. Create a product must give its personality characteristics, such as products to give people masculine, feminine, cute, high-end, dynamic, traditional, current and other feelings. For example, Nokia mobile phones have developed a color-changing mobile phone for the fast-growing consumer market of girls, making it easy for women to match the colors of clothing and nail polish.

1.3 Product Semantic Factors

The use of semantic learning in product design needs to convey the following six kinds of information: (1) the intelligibility of the product form language; (2) the internal communication of the product (such as performance, quality, etc.); (3) symbolic; (4) The expressiveness of the United States; (5) the epochal nature; (6) the degree of redundancy of semantic information (the information conveyed should be greater than the basic information needed to facilitate identification after depletion).

1.4 The role of product form

(1) Meaning refers to the role: through the product form to represent a certain meaning, reflecting the product's attributes. "Mobile phone" means a mobile communication product. (2) Performance: The designer's emotional expression, such as the design of a mobile phone, not only satisfies the function of the product but also embodies the designer's creativity. Role: To communicate the meaning and performance of the user to the user.The user understands and recognizes the language in the product, ie decodes and reads the information.

2 Product linguistic design process

2.1 Use scenarios to determine

(1) The determination of the target group of users. The target group preferably has the same needs and desires. Its various factors are more unified and it is easier to grasp the interpretation of images within a certain range. (2) The purpose of use is determined. (3) Usage is determined. (4) The use environment is determined. Different environments have different requirements for product morphology and semantics. (5) Cultural identification (involving areas, customs, culture, religious beliefs, etc.).

Only by clarifying the people in a specific society, a specific era, a specific environment, specific conditions, and a specific time can we better interpret such a very specific person's needs, behavior, and psychology.

2.2 Product Role Determination

According to the determined use scenario, product characters are extracted from the product, and the inherent roles of the product and the symbolism of its environment are explored.

(1) The product's intrinsic role, which is also called the natural role, is determined according to the product's own function and its use behavior. (2) The product's symbolic role, also called social role, is determined according to the environment in which it is used, society, and customs.

2.3 Interpretation of product dual roles

The abstract semantic attributes are used to interpret the product's dual role through product form language.

2.4 Evaluation

Consider the feasibility of the product form, whether it is limited by technology, process, and economy.

3 Elements that better convey product semantics

3.1 Form comes from nature

The product form comes from nature, but it is not entirely adopted. After the designer's creativity, familiarity but new ideas. The adoption of this form is familiar, easy to remember and intimacy. Such as the use of the human body, when the strict product morphology is designed according to human physiological characteristics, people are easy to understand and accept. The human body is the most frequently used design language for designers.

See Figure 1. The United States EC telephone J, the clever use of the curve broke through the shape of the past phone, called the classic telephone design.

3.2 Cultural conventions

The ideographic elements of the product are relatively stable from cultural conventions. This kind of representation is divided into two categories, one of which is inherent, such as scales, buttons, knobs, handles, and other things that have clear meanings. The other is descriptive, by describing actions or instructing the user's actions.

3.3 Controlling Suggestions

The designer eliminates the ambiguity of semantics by contrasting the modeling elements with the related modeling elements, so that the product semantics are clarified. As shown in the Jazz "table lamp (Italy) J" in Fig. 2, through the clever design of the hollow size of its desk arm, the user can be instructed on how to retract and fold without explanation.

4 Conclusion

Today's product is an important symbol for consumers' pursuit of a new lifestyle and their own value. Product design is no longer only a practical function, but must have symbolic cognitive function and aesthetic function. Therefore, semantic design needs to make full use of people's psychological, physiological, social, cultural and other factors to re-deconstruct and integrate the products, create more suitable products for the users, and make users feel intimacy and trust from the products. This often reflects the need for designers to pay attention to life and culture, strive to use the cultural factors of the society and create their own understanding of the world, and expand the design space with unique insights and diverse forms. This is also the product innovation design. Source.

Source: "Packaging Engineering" Zhang Hao Tianjin University of Science and Technology