Design system of improving product principle scheme based on affordance

ZHOU Shengming, LI Jiquan, ZHOU Hangchao, YANG Shaoguang

(Key Laboratory of Special Purpose Equipment and Advanced Manufacturing Technology,
Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China)

Abstract: Aiming that the existing product design is mainly based on function, while the function of the product only reflect the partial information that the transformation of some inputoutput state instead of the nonfunctional information, the affordance can be applied to express nonfunctional relationship between different entities associated with product, therefore the method of combining affordance with traditional design solutions based on function was investigated. And the key technology of the developing design systems was formed after synthesizing the substancefield Affordance Model and other analysis tools, then the design system of improving product principle scheme for the conceptual design phase was developed based on these analysis tools and discussing the method to implement SubstanceField Affordance. The comparison of the scheme design of the glass cleaner between design method based on affordance and based on function was presented. The results indicate that the design scheme turns to be more ideal under the design system when affordance is considered.

Key words: interaction; substancefield affordance model; product principle scheme; design system