Product Design Affinity in the Internet Age

Since 1993, the Internet has developed at an unimaginable rate and has so far penetrated into every corner of the world. The networked world it has constructed has a greater and far-reaching impact than TV has on human civilization, and it has brought human civilization to the forefront. Take a new mileage. The coming of the network generation represents the change of life forms. As a member of the family, especially the role of parents, will change in the face of their children. As a member of the company, especially the managers and employees will change their attitude towards life, access to information, friends, and There will be fundamental changes in the views of work, entertainment and leisure.

From this point of view, the direction of product design in the future will be integration of physical and virtual worlds. Product design work will be to find out practical obstacles and problems in life, and rely on the characteristics and functions of the Internet technology to create an exclusion for people. Obstacles to solve the problem of the product. Because children like interactive internet computers, today’s children watch TV less than five years ago. Compared with their parents who are watching TV at the same age, they call them the “N” era. This concept reflects the children aged 2 to 22 in 1999, so it includes not only those who are currently active in cyberspace.

With the development of the network society, the network generation will become the new mainstream in the new century. They have the unique characteristics that they have given them in this era:
<1>Digital behavior; they are familiar with electronic media, and they live on the Internet. They can understand digital behavior without much thought, because they have grown up in the process.
<2> More DIYs; The development of personal computers has changed human behavior, and the notion of Do It Youself has given more and more popularity to every user. The do-it-yourself feature means that the number of digital products used by the network generation will be more than non-network generations.
<3> Anti-authoritativeness; The nature of the network is decentralization, and children growing up in the digital environment have many channels of information, fast circulation, and skepticism and creativity are natural.
<4> World Outlook; The Internet contributes to world peace. E-mail can strengthen the understanding among children of all countries in the world. People influence each other, increase understanding, and make the network generations globally aware.
<5>The concept of efficiency; the quickness of e-mail is undeniable, that is to say, efficiency is a kind of behavior habit, and the network society makes the network generations to form the concept and habit of efficiency.
<6> More Yuan knowledge; The network will increase children's opportunities to contact with the outside world. Each contact is the door to open knowledge. At this time, the functional and morphological problems studied in product design must follow the network generation's own consumption characteristics: the need for diversified choices; the cyber generation is used to the button method and the endless network of roaming paths, they believe that the endless choice is almost a matter of course Things. The requirements are tailor-made; fierce competition in the market brings endless choices, and the network makes it easy to become one-on-one.

I hope that I can change my mind at any time; as long as I tap the mouse, network generations can correct the mistakes at any time. Technology will not make them dazzled, the value provided by the products and the feelings conveyed to them become very important. Therefore, in these specific atmospheres and network ages, product design affinity has become an important feature of network generation product design, which is unique to network generation product design. The so-called functional advantages may not be sculpting advantages. Affinity is not merely an anthropomorphic appearance design and soft colors in the products of the network generation, but also embodies a unique function realization that will satisfy the features of the network generations. With the concept of consumption, so that the function of affinity and shape together, to convey to users, truly meet the new needs of the network generation. In the end, what it embodies is a kind of humanistic spirit. It is a perfect and harmonious combination of human and product. Affinity makes the product not an object outside the body, but it becomes an indispensable part of the network generation itself. The affinity of the network generation product function is possibly achieved through the Internet technology. Network technologies can include computing, telecommunications, entertainment, publishing, and other technologies. Effectively spread digitized text, sound effects, images, and video, and quickly incorporate other information formats, such as physical feedback (that is, the system provides you with a sense of touch feedback) and even smell information (just press and smell) Can). Whenever something new is loaded into the network, the so-called cyberspace will also expand. Network technology influences these young people of the network generation, making their dependence on the network from a novelty to a necessity of life. From 1995 to 2000, the proportion of households accessing the Internet rose from 10% to 46%. At this time, the affinity functions are like the elderly and the crutches. The baby and the bottle are the same. The relationship between them is natural and the function is clear and the demand is Naturally, on the contrary, people will feel blunt and unfamiliar. What's more, the affinity of people over the age of 50 for television is equal to the affinity of young people on the Internet for computers, and it is difficult to replace and compare. The communication of product function is restricted by affinity.

The Hot Badges recently designed by Philips Company is a function provided by badges to break the silence between people and promote a product of communication. People can enter their own favorite characteristics of the other party's badge, such as hobbies, appearance interests, etc., usually worn on the body, when the information stored in the badges worn by different people are the same or similar, once the two meet will be issued at the same time Prompt to prove to find someone you like. The affinity of the functions it provides is achieved through the inter-telecommunication and feedback of network technology. At the same time, it is also a need of the Internet generation to use the Internet to communicate and meet friends. Philips is using new technologies to solve people’s needs in daily life. It is essentially unchanged (that is, people are eager to understand each other and the individual tends to the nature of the group), but it provides people with a way to achieve new ways and technologies. People do not feel strange but feel more cordial and gratified. However, some of the more common additional functional design is the opposite. It stems from people’s early understanding of high technology, that is, the more function buttons, the more technologically-featured (purchasers feel more affordable) home video recorders with clear features. And playback is its main function, while additional memory storage programming timing subtitles and other difficult-to-learn function buttons interfere with proper use of the recorder's functions (perhaps for some kind of promotion or added value, etc.) instead users to exclude Some unnecessary function buttons go to use the necessary functions, and even learn to use the instructions for a long time, the time will be indifferent to those additional function buttons, so that people lose their affinity for that part of the function, and then affect The efficiency of use of the entire product.

The affinity of the network generation product function formally embodies the era characteristics of the network generation itself, so it advocates the clarity of the function, the high efficiency of use, as well as the diversification and autonomy, the reduction of the stylized functional modes, and the provision of a wide range of people Use space. Newspapers and magazines are a kind of traditional carrier and medium for reading information and understanding knowledge. However, when they enter the age of the Internet, young people of the Internet generation need to filter information storage, delete and download related content, and at the same time be portable and environmentally friendly, so Philips has developed an electronic magazine (Electronic). It is composed of a flexible LCD screen that can be folded and unfolded for carrying. It satisfies the needs of the Internet generation in the online society. Traditional media are provided to people through new methods, just as people wear shoes and wear leather shoes. , from the Pentium 3 to Pentium 4 generations did not feel unfamiliar and icy. This is the special meaning of the affinity of network generation products. In all generations, functions and forms are inseparable. Affinity functions also need the form of affinity to convey to the user and express the meaning of the function. Product design is conveyed to people through languages ​​such as color, form, material, and structure. In 1998, the brand-new IMAC computer once again proved the success of affinity design. From the appearance point of view, it is integrated as a whole. It looks like a translucent glass fish. The peculiar translucent round mouse is awesome. It's a PC. There was a huge impact, followed by Lenovo Scorpio, Shida Heavenly Dreams, TCL Titanium Series, and computers developed for youth and the elderly, making the relative crowd more product-friendly. People really feel the harmonious development of technology and the harmony between humanity and human needs.

People have the deepest feeling of morphological affinity to be considered as a child. There is such an example to fully prove this point; Cincinnati prefers building blocks. At the age of three, his uncle gave him a set of wooden colored blocks with beautiful patterns. He really couldn't put it down. The peeling off of the paint blocks in one year is very old. So my father specially gave him a set of wooden blocks, of course, the price is not cheap. But Dad gradually discovered that Cincinnine rarely played with this new building block, and his father could not understand it, so he asked why, and he answered with sympathy, no color is not fun! Basically the same building blocks but the color determines the child's love for it. This shows that visual perception dominates people's perceptions. People can use red to imagine the sun, flags, and safflowers. You can imagine trees, lawns, etc. through green. Colorless things can hardly satisfy people's desires. Affinity's modeling factor is to provide sufficient space for imagination. Once people have this space in their thoughts, they will have a sense of affinity with the product. The unique curiosity of network generations, such as their strong self-assertion and diverse choices, reflect their feelings and space provided by the modeling language they focus on after pursuing the premise of function first. Sexual language is just like children's emotions in the face of light and darkness. Affinity brings people endless imagination and easy-to-understand things. On the contrary, suppressing fear and strangeness forces people to stay away from it. In the 1999 LG Product Design Contest, the reason why it wins is that it captures the characteristics of affinity, enabling people to use the network technology to achieve the possibility of web browsing on existing lamps, virtually expanding people’s thinking. .

He evolved the electronic pen and pen holder into vases and bouquets to keep the cool science and technology feeling away from people. On the other hand, plant and flower table lamps and other life-like atmospheres brought people closer to science and technology and made people feel more intimate. It is precisely because of the affinity modeling provides people with the imagination space, but also reflects a certain modeling language, for the air cleaner, people immediately think of the green mountains, green water, blue sky, vast Forest grass and other scenes. Therefore, there is such a design air freshener in the LG competition. It takes the form of leaves as the modeling language, deepens the sensibility and expectation, makes people feel the natural breath from the friendly leaf form, and at the same time, the color is added to make the new Natural feelings come to life. Undoubtedly, the affinity of the next generation of network product design will have a more comprehensive connotation. At the same time, it will also recognize the relationship between all the people and things in the past, and develop in time, space, physiological sense, and psychological direction. Such as digital formation to be extended. In real life, human-to-human communication is communicated through language, and material-to-human communication is conveyed through the function and form of objects. While creating product functions, people also give it a certain form, and the form can express a certain character, just as it has vitality since then. In the process of using materials, people will get all sorts of information and cause different emotions. This is an intuitive understanding of people's external things. It is generally called the perceptual stage of cognition. When the design is such that the product's appearance, texture, and tactile feel to people is a beautiful and harmonious experience, the product will have an affinity at this time. Modern products generally give people two kinds of information, one is knowledge