mail us

Faff and Function

This product by Nick Hawksworth is a concept halogen lighting unit for use in short term displays, with the aim of drawing focus upon an artefact or in order to alter the ambience of an area or space. Below Nick describes his thoughts behind the product

The light was designed by myself as a product design undergraduate last year, and is to my contemporaries and I, a good example of a developmental agenda in product design to add a lot of intellectual 'Faff' to the functional requirements of a product. This is obviously by no means a bad thing, as appeal and desirability are ultimately what sells a product but it also explains what is going on in the world of product design.

The actual technology used in this design (apart from production technology) is very basic. The innovation of enabling this technology to be used in a portable capacity, is clever, but also rather basic, which brings us to the form of the product, and where the 'Faff factor' comes into it's own.

The functional requirements that enable portability by transporting, assembly, positioning and packing away, have been integrated in a styled form and shape,that makes you notice the product, want to look closer, pick the product up, form an opinion and,hopefully buy it. The X' factor, appeal.

This appeal has evolved through an iterative design process of thought, design on paper using traditional methods, mock-up foam modelling, discussion and criticism, all in an attempt to develop an animal like quality to the functional requirements of the light, which has ultimately led to the quirky and appealing character of this design concept.

It is now important to recall the real functional requirement of this lighting unit, namely to draw focus upon an artefact on display, and, in this important respect the prototype failed repeatedly in usability testing, not because the light fell down or was unsafe, but because of it's appeal. The tests showed that subject's who did not know the light was being tested generally took more interest in it's form and not the illuminated artefact being displayed, which after all is the main requirement of this light unit . . . but hopefully you've already bought it because of it's looks.

This is a rather extreme example of 'faff and function' in product design, but it outlines how designers, by developing faffy designer buttons and amorphous, curvaceous cases on consumer products, can smother the real function of a product with a lot of design for the sake of designer trends, encouraging customers to buy a product without looking at it's real usability. This is not to say that curvaceous and funky designs don't work, it just shows that it pays to be more analytical, looking through the features or'faff' of a product into it's more important and real 'function'. However, although this halogen light concept shown here does include a lot faffy design for designs sake, it is still cleverly designed artefact that emits charm and character, regardless of it's functional shortfalls . . . but then I'm totally biased.+