A Study on The Modeling of Multifunctional Furniture Based on Affordance and Signifier

Abstract

As multifunctional furniture has flexible forms and could save space, its proportion in daily life is constantly increasing. However, in order to cater to the minimalist design trend, the rich information that the modeling of multifunctional furniture should contain is always ignored, which causes users to have a series of usage problems because of cognitive friction when facing “simple” styling. In order to allow the usefulness and usability of multifunctional furniture to be easily perceived by users, the authors conducted a relevant study on the modeling of multifunctional furniture from the perspective of signifier and affordance. The research method of this study is a combination of literature review and case analysis. The authors first sorted out the relationship between signifier and affordance in industrial design through related literature. Then, the authors combined different cases of multifunctional furniture, to analyze the role of the three core elements(shape, color and material) of the modeling as signifiers that carry information specifying affordances during the functional transformation. Finally, the authors found that the modeling of multifunctional furniture can form signifiers with rich information that clearly conveys the corresponding affordances, which is helpful to guide users to form natural interactions with multifunctional furniture. And the authors also put forward the following design steps for multifunctional furniture modeling. Step 1: the functions of multifunctional furniture should be clarified based on the needs of target users, and the actions that users need to perform to switch between different functions should also be determined. The first step is the key to realizing usefulness. Step 2: the modeling of multifunctional furniture should be constructed through different combinations of shapes, colors and materials, which should fully convey the information of the functionality, action possibilities and the operating positions of the corresponding actions. The second step is the key to realizing ease of use. However, these two steps still need to be further deepened in future studies.