Tirza Fennis

The topic of my Graduation was chosen because of an annoyance created by bad tactile design, made aware of by reading the books of Donald Norman. I noticed how the buttons on a mobile phone or remote control feel all feel similar, even though they all have different functions. We need to read descriptions to know what the buttons are for, but we want to look at the screen to see the response. So products, like remote controls, should be designed so we can feel which function we are activating, rather than see only. That is why I focused on tactility design, but after an extensive literature study I realized that the competence to design for touch is missing. Therefore, I envisioned a design strategy for functional pleasant tactility: designing something that feels pleasant to touch while using it.

The design strategy is based on the 4 components that make up a competence: knowledge, insight, skill and attitude. Basic designer knowledge, specific knowledge of functional pleasant tactility (which can be found in my thesis), knowledge of the product that needs to be designed and knowledge of the company and market are all required. Insights into the design process (see this image) are necessary to perform it oneself; understanding is needed to draw the proper conclusions, make the right decisions and color the basic process with personal experience. Basic designer skills need to be possessed to follow this strategy, as well as the specific skill of 'designing through research' and 'facilitating creative sessions'. The most important thing is to adapt a certain attitude; a hands-on method is required in designing for functional pleasant tactility, because tactility is all about the feel and interactions, which can only be correctly imagined by touching physical examples.

By following the envisioned design strategy for a specific case (a Bang & Olufsen TV remote control), I can show how well the strategy works. The gathered information can be seen in the thesis. The most important step is to explore hands-on. This was done through workshops in the form of creative sessions. Groups of people were asked to touch various objects while imagining functions for the pleasant movements they were performing. Like stroking a soft pillow to "soften" the sound volume of the TV. All those pleasant movements were analyzed, coded and grouped to form 3 distinct themes: inviting (wanting to explore/discover), mastery/control (achieving something challenging), and logical (metaphor, logical link between action and function). The three major themes, which are depicted in the image with their corresponding pleasant movements, are used as a starting point to design three concepts.

Each concept was simplified to keep them comparable, by having only the three main functions: switching the TV on/off, adjusting the volume, and changing channels. The interactions with the textured pillow, which are depicted here, fit the inviting theme because the actions are nearly irresistible to perform. The first thing a person often wants to do when seeing a soft pillow, is hugging it. This is the power function. The different textures invite exploration, which activate the other functions by stroking, rubbing and caressing the corresponding areas.

To realize the previous mentioned inviting actions, the textured pillow concept should look (and feel!) like in this picture.

To come up with a concept for the mastery/control theme, the actions seen here were envisioned for the 3 major TV remote functions. The control is completely based on the challenge of maneuvering a knob blindly through a maze, like with a gear shift in the car. The power function is close to the middle, where the knob starts, and the 4 other functions are cross-divided over the 4 corners.

For the mastery/control concept to take shape, the haptic labyrinth should look as in the image, and feel real smooth to operate. The knob should be firm and comfortable, and the function activation should be clearly felt (like a tactual click).

The tactile armrest is completely based on the logical theme, as can be understood by the depicted interactions. Opening up the cover, switches the TV on, just like closing the cover switches the TV off. Moving over a triangular smooth surface is what adjusts the volume, according to 'more width is more sound volume'. The opposite is of course also true. A step-wise slider is what selects the channels based on an absolute position. Meaning that with 10 channels, sliding the knob to 7/10ths of the track corresponds with channel 7. All completely logical in tactility.

The tactile armrest concept then looks and works as depicted in this image. The fabric used should be soft so it is pleasant to touch, and should be positioned on the armrest of the main TV seat.

The 3 concepts were then prototyped by constantly testing the intended touch and functioning. This method is called 'design through research'. As can be seen, the top of the pillow has 4 different textures with different feels. Under each square texture a capacitance area is sowed inside, to measure the presence of a living body. This is the sensor that actives the functions. The bottom of the pillow has a large metal area sown inside, that acts like ground, so the pillow will still work when it is resting on someone's lap (a living body as well).

The prototype for the haptic labyrinth has a heavy base, with rubber feet under it, to keep it steady. The labyrinth path is machine-cut in plastic to assure smooth maneuvering. The knob is made of fake leather with filling inside, and it presses against micro-switches to activate the functions. All prototypes were made in cooperation with Bang & Olufsen.

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The evaluation step involved a user study. Male and female participants, both young and old (28 in total), joined. They were asked to test all 3 prototypes in random order, starting with a sensitivity test. Multiple research methods were used, in a within-subject study: interviewing, thinking-aloud, Likert-scale rating and user experience evaluating. The participants were asked about their expectations from looking at the prototype, then using the prototype while thinking-aloud, to reflect on the first expectations afterward. Then they rated the presence of the theme in the concept, on a Likert-scale. Each prototype ended with performing an evaluation task based on triggering deeper experiences using specific images. After all 3 prototypes were tested that way, the research session ended with a few final questions on preference (and a present as thanks for their participation).

After transcribing all video-taped research sessions, the mostly qualitative data was divided over the separate parts of the user study, and grouped by prototype. Coding, grouping and reorganizing the data resulted in schematics, tables and wordles (word clouds depicting importance by size and proximity). From this analysis, many conclusions can be drawn concerning the perception of functional pleasant tactility and the effectiveness of the 3 themes (see thesis). For the case study, however, it was only important to use the insights gained from data analysis in designing a final concept.

The research showed that opening and closing something in order to turn the TV on or off, worked very intuitive and felt pleasant. Therefore, this function is redesigned in the final concept of the tactual wallet. The touch-sensitive triangle is kept for volume adjustment (because it was very positively received by the participants), only texture is added (gradually from soft to rough) in order to create an even stronger link with soft and 'rough' sound. The step-wise channel selection was happily accepted as well, but it needed to be continuous for an unfixed amount of channels. Thus a wheel was introduced, with the added benefit of being playful and therefore inviting.

Looking like a leather wallet, the final concept looks and feels luxurious (which fits the Bang & Olufsen style), and makes people curious of what is inside. Aluminum plates inside give the wallet a comfortable weight and feel, which elicits the experience of quality (compared to "cheap" plastic). The wallet also has the perfect size for a remote control, for easy handling. All in all a great final concept based on the positive aspects of the 3 major themes for this context.

In conclusion, the outcome of the case study (the final design proposal) is a fitting and creative remote control with the interaction based on functional pleasant tactility. This shows that the envisioned process (or the strategy) that was implemented can provide good results not only in this context, but in the broader context of industrial design as well (based on successful use of the separate components in the design strategy throughout design education and the profession). So with this design approach, industrial designers can create inviting and intuitive products with a focus on pleasant touch. For remarks, reflections and recommendations I would like to advise reading my thesis: http://repository.tudelft.nl/search/ir/?q=tirza+fennis&faculty=&department=&type=&year=