Product Semantics in Theory and Practice
Li A B E Wikström · Chalmers Publication Library (Chalmers University of Technology) · 2019
In the field of industrial design it is important that products, through their material form, be given an opportunity to carry and communicate an intentional message. A product can express characteristics and thereby create desirable emotions in a potential user. Semiotics is usually described as sign theory – the science and study of signs and sign systems, their structure, properties and role in sociocultural behaviour. The term ‘sign’ has been defined thus: ‘A sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity.’ (Charles S. Peirce, CP 2.228.) Semiotics may be seen as a way of observing with which people’s perceptions and attitude toward the surroundings can be described and explained. A sign is something that conveys a message to us. Semantics is the theory of relationships between signs and their meanings, and studies the product’s message. The icon is a category of signs that builds upon similarity between physical form and what it refers to, such as another product, an activity, or a property or expression. Icons occur commonly in design work. Metaphors can be regarded as icons, and a metaphor may be used to give a product some specific expression. The product may express characteristics that resemble those of another product, and their relationship can then be called metaphorical. A sports car expressing speed, manliness and efficiency may be used as a metaphor for creating these expressions in, for example, a vacuum cleaner. Product semiotics is fundamental to the instruction given today in the educational area of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE), among others, at Chalmers University of Technology. Semiotic concepts and models form a basis for a product-semiotic theory and, with this point of departure, the product sign can be analysed and explained. The instruction contains a theoretical part and a more practical applied part. Through theoretical instruction in product semiotics, the students gain access to a conceptual apparatus which makes it possible to analyse and discuss an existing product’s semantic functions and to formulate requirements for a new product’s semantic functions. Through partly experimental exercises and application projects, the students proceed to formulate, using specified semantic requirements, a new product solution with a focus on the product’s semantic design. In one application project, the aim was that the students should free themselves completely from the current product sign and think of entirely new design solutions for products – a camera, a radio, and an alarm clock. The starting point of the project was to consider the product as a sign and to define a desired message as the basis for the semantic design. The students began with a specific life-style and formulated a number of expressions that were to attract the envisaged user. The life-style was illustrated with an ‘image board’, and the chosen expression with an ‘expression board’. The latter serves to visualise a particular expression by means of a metaphor, a (natural or product) form, a colour, a material or surface structure, and an existing product that can be said to carry the expression. Subsequently, the ‘expression board’ provides a basis for sketch-work in which the final product is given a form that carries the specified expression. Through the experiences acquired during the instruction, it has been shown that product semiotics is applicable in practical design work. This paper will illustrate two examples that clearly demonstrate how a specified expression can be shaped through the product.