finding the language
of objects
My research and work aims to solve the question: how might we find the language of objects to design them to be better suited for design conscious individuals between 18 and 30 years of age? More specifically in my response to the problem, I’m responding to the question: how might a digital app help designers understand the language of objects and design more effectively?
In doing so, I’ve designed an app called curo that helps designers design better by making them aware of how they value objects and how that impacts their design practice. The app uses the allure of teaching its users about themselves by assigning users personality types based on the attribute of objects they most value.
If I weren’t a graphic designer, I’d be a designer of things; I’ve always been intrigued by the relationship between objects and the mind. The impact the objects in our spaces have on how we live our lives and do our jobs.
My initial research was just about the nature of objects trying to find how they could be broken down into a language or body of attributes that was universal to every object.
In this work, I define objects as things that have gone through a design process, as well as, a process of manufacture. By this definition, objects are created by ideas, so I read about theory on form and the types of people that design and make objects.
In the concept map above you can see how I’m breaking down and digesting my secondary research. I’m not only looking at objects at this point, I’m also investigating spaces and the relationships between people, their spaces, and the objects in their spaces.
the languages
of objects
brand + luxury / craft / form / function / identity / material / sentiment / user experience
In my primary research, I talked to the designers around me and gave them the task of writing about objects that they cared about the most.
I had them sort cards with the eight different attributes of objects from most important to least. In the interview, I asked them to describe where their object lived within their space, whether the object was “designed” or not.
Eventually if the conversation and activities had changed the way they’d see objects in their everyday life to which all of my participants replied with yes.
curo is my response to the question of how might a digital app help designers understand the language of objects and design more effectively? The app helps design better by helping them understand themselves better and how they work, as well as recommending ways to increase productivity and awareness of other designers in their field. This is by having users answer questions about objects as well as swipe right (yes) or left (no) on objects, which helps to place them into one of eight personality types. These types: Aestheticist, Experientialist, Functionalist, Individualist, Sentimentalist, Structuralist,
Substantialist, and Sybaritist. There’s also a social aspect of this wherein users can see what their friends or co-workers are, and in turn, how they might approach their work.
