Date

1976

Author

Asatekin, Mehmet

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Industrially produced objects are defining almost 90 percent of our close environment. As a result, they are constantly being evaluated by the people whose environment they define. In these evaluations the relevant criteria change according to the intentions of the user, characteristics of the user, characteristics of the situation, effects of the rest of the 'environment and many other factors. In case of professional people whose main objective ia to study and evaluate the product scientifically the condition is not much different: each evaluator uses the criteria relevant to his approach which, in turn, is governed by the type of his discipline. An ergonomist controls whether the dimensional characteristics conform to the anthropometric data, while a mechanical engineer comments on the working of the inner mechanism, and an aesthetician notices the proportions of its parts. This is most natural. Yet, what is disturbing is the fact that most of the time they give no credit to the criteria which are applied by the other concerned disciplines. Usually the design criteria for a product are identical with the criteria for the evaluation of that product. The above described attitude becomes even more critical when being utilized during the determination of the design criteria for products. A one-sided appraisal ends in a biased evaluation; a one-sided design approach ends in a disaster from design point of view. Such designed products are far from being a "complete" object. This article is an attempt in unifying several approaches to industrial design criteria. The unified approach to the design criteria should be the sole objective of the designer. In fact, the designer is the only person responsible for the coordination of diverse activities towards a given objective: The creation of a man-made object. In this unified approach the design criteria for industrially produced objects are classified as follows: 1. Functional Criteria a. Physiological: Physical characteristics of the object should conform to the physiological requirements of human body and living. Environmental: Physical characteristics of the object should conform to the physical characteristics of the environment and of the other objects with which it comes into contact. c. Communicational: The object should be able to communicate its function and usability to the user through the elements of object language. 2. Psychological Criteria a. Perceptual: The object should be so shaped that it will cause correct and undisturbing percepts at the user. b. Socio-cultural: The object should not force the user to assuming attitudes which are in conflict with social and/or cultural norms. c. Emotional: The object should have potentialities for being "identified" by the user. d. Expressional: The object should be an efficient means for the designer to express messages to invite a response. 3. Technological Criteria a. Materials: The object should utilize proper materials structurally, visually, and operationally. b. Manufacturing methods: The object should employ correct methods that fit to the requirements of the materials and of the object's formal characteristics. 4. Economic Criteria a. Consumer: The object should be an economic item for the consumer. b. Producer: The object should be economic to produce. c. Macro: The production of the object should take into consideration its influence on world resources and macro-economics in general.

URI

http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/1976/cilt02/sayi_2/247-263.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51342

Collections

Department of Architecture, Article