DEPtH: Designing for Physicality

We live in an increasingly digital world yet our bodies and minds are naturally designed to interact with the physical. From electric kettles that switch themselves off when boiling, to washing machines, TV remotes and in the future increasingly automated homes, the products of the 21st century are and will be synthesise of digital and physical elements – and for the user these will become indistinguishable just as we do not consciously think of the wire between light switch and bulb. Similar changes have happened before, as in the movement of the mechanical and electronic from factory to home. However now the pace of change is such that waiting for craft understanding to develop is untenable, hence the need for more radical and fundamental understandings, informed by and informing practical design.

When designing purely physical products we do not necessarily have to understand what it is about their physicality that make them work – they simply have it. However as we design hybrid physical/digital products we now have to understand what we lose or confuse by the added digitality – and so need to understand physicality more clearly than before. In this project we aim to collate and construct fundamental understanding of the nature of physicality: how humans experience, manipulate, react and reason about ‘real’ physical things. Through this clear understanding we will be in the position to offer constructive guidance and guidelines to inform design of innovative products.

< back