I've asked around, on facebook, classmates, people from different backgrounds, architectures, game designers, interaction designers, game artist, illustrators.. but it is very very very hard to find information about how to create function in your design. My research so far has only been about form, but my research actually is about function. This is not because I'm not aware of this, but because it is very hard to find the information I need about creating function in your design. And I think this is a very big issue. So far during my study, I've learned a lot about creating form and using it to communicate something. This can be seen as a function, but I've never actually learned anything about communicating functions specificly. We all learned this by doing it, using the same tricks we've seen other people doing. If you asked me to design a handle, I would design a proper working handle. But don't ask me what kind of rules or principles I applied to be sure I made the right decisions to communicate the function of the handle.
Point is, I know how to create a function, but I don't understand why exactly it works that way. And I think a lot of people don't know. That is why it is so hard to find information about this subject.
Form follows function, but how DO you design function???
First thing I learned to get to information about this, is don't try to find information with the word function. Use affordances instead.
I've found some interesting articles with this searchword:
http://www.designingforhumans.com/idsa/2007/11/affordances-in.html
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6005281&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D6005281
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5359708&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D5359708
easyprague.cz/presentations/needham.ppt
http://www2.uiah.fi/sefun/DSIU_papers/DSIU%20_%20Kilbourn%20&%20Isaksson%20_%20Meaning%20through%20doing.pdf (!!!)
http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/conferences/cd_donotopen/adc/final_paper/105.pdf (theory about what affordances are and what product sematics are, very important)
http://paaralan.blogspot.com/2010/09/affordance-and-educational-games.html (what are affordances, clearly explained)
Interesting knowledge I found
Affordances can also be named action possibilities.
So play affordances can also be named play possibilities. I think this fits.
Again J.J. Gibson's principle of affordances. My next step is to research this principle further.
One of the ongoing "philosophical" points of contention when I was in graduate school was between the cognitive psychologists and the ecological psychologists over the theory of perception.
In a nutshell, the cognitive approach assumes that information in the world is ambiguous and cognitive-perceptual processes are required to interpret stimuli into meaningful information. For example, an object is observed through the visual system and the brain uses that stimulation in conjunction with memory to disambiguate and identify the object. This is in fact how most people understand perception to work.
The minority alternative comes from the ecological perspective ("ecological" as in a rich stimulus environment, and not related to sustainable design), which posits that information in the world is specific and sufficiently detailed to communicate information without any interpretation. That is, the visual stimulus is unique and conveys the relevant characteristics to the observer.
This contrast in approaches also emerged in the world of product and interface design over the term "affordance". The term was coined by J.J. Gibson, the father of ecological psychology, to define the relationship between an actor (e.g. human, animal) and an object or environment. For example, a flat surface "affords" sitting on, a pointy one does not. Note that an affordance is a property that exists whether it is perceived or not or acted on or not.
Product semantics is a tool in product design to generate newer, better and more meaningful forms. Consumer preference and perception of products strongly influence a product's acceptability. Both are expressed by words that may be studied using product semantics.
In Gibson’s theory of perception, an organism directly perceives the value of the environment through
affordances. By affordance, Gibson means the opportunities or possibilities of nature, which require
the act of information pickup. Within design theory, however, there is a strong tendency towards
separating perceptual information of affordances and the affordance itself. Combining theoretical
discussion with an empirical case study of a medical device, we suggest there is untapped value in
the notion of direct perception and argue that there is meaning through doing. Looking at the role
of affordances over time, instead of a person’s first exposure to a product necessitates sensitivity
toward enskilment and how people create meaning through the use of products. (Meaning through doing:
The role of affordances over time, by Kyle Kilbourn and Jessica Isaksson)
Recent years, Gibson's affordance concept has drawn many attentions in the field of
human-computer interface and product design. However, the development of affordance concept in design
practice is by far not yet matured, and the differentiation between affordance and symbolic meaning of designed
artifacts is not clear. As a result, that wrongly exercising the techniques of “Product Semantics” while
implementation of affordance concept is meant is often found in design field. Such confusion not only can
hinder the development of ecological approach in design research, but also limit the potential application of
affordance concept as well.
Conclusion:
The problem is not finding techniques or principles for designing function, but to look what this function communication actually is. It now turns out that the communication of functions can be two things, one (which I already discussed) is 'affordance' and the other one (which is new to me) is 'product semantics'.
-I first need to figure out what function communication is and what an affordance is and what product semantics got to do with this.
When I've done this, I will have my own take on what function communication in toys is and what is important for this.
- Next step will be to look at all the aspect of this communication (done by both ethnography and literal research), make a very big mindmapping brainstorm and try to find a pattern in it. This pattern will (hopefully) bring me to a certain outcome that can tell what elements visual communication of function contain.
- Last step will be how to apply this.
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