Beyond Screens. Exploring product dynamic features as communication means

Product semantics has been studying how product sensory features convey implicit messages to users for decades. However, thanks to technology advances, traditional static product features (such as its shape, texture, colour, smell) are becoming dynamic, able to change actively over time. These new properties might be employed to communicate dynamic information to users. Exploring how this sensory communication can be performed, and the advantages and limits connected to dynamic products, is the aim of this paper. To achieve the goal, three studies have been conducted: a case studies analysis, a design workshop and interviews with users. Results show that dynamic products can communicate messages to users and can also enhance the user experience, by making the communication both more effective and engaging. However, some difficulties have been highlighted, mainly related to the designer’s ability to control those dynamic features. The work gives an overview of the new category of dynamic products, together with their advantages and limits, when design theory still lacks the knowledge to support practice; it thus constitutes a starting point in the exploration of an emerging scenario for the communication from products to users.


 Design and semantics of form and movement DeSForM 2013