Standard Collection

If one was to use an object and build a relationship with that object they would be less cavalier about throwing it away and replacing it. They would want to fix it or sell it or give it to a loving home. So many objects pass through our lives unnoticed and unappreciated to end up thrown away. There is an Ikea commercial with a scenario in which a family gets a new lamp and there old lamp gets set out on the curb with the trash. The scene is accompanied by sad music and sympathetic angles, it also starts to rain and you can see the new lamp cozy and warm in the place where the old lamp used to be. At this point the narrator says don't feel bad silly, its just a lamp. I would love it if everyone had that same emotional connection to their objects that you feel for the lamp in that commercial. I would love it if it wasn't “just a lamp” but that amazing object that keeps light in your home that you could never live without.

There are domestic objects on the market whose primary function is reached through unorthodox methods, but these objects are generally contrived and harder to use or are far less functional than their more common counterparts. I have seen a sink with a faucet that is no more than a hole in the surface of a table with a low flow of water that continually flows. To turn this sink off or on you simply lift a small stone from plugging the water flow. This scenario allows the user to break from the normal conventions of how a sink works but easily allows the user to fall back into the routine of conventionality after the novelty of the simple stone faucet wears off. no decision making is being made and no variance in your actions take place. Functional issues also arise in the example of this sink. This sink has one water flow with no hot or cold. This means that the user is limited to the flow and temperature that the plumbing of this sink was set to by the plumber that installed it.  I have created domestic objects that marry functionality, variance in how they are used, and attractive aesthetic language as balanced as possible. These objects are designed with someone who appreciates a balance of simplicity, functionality, and beauty.

Not all objects functions lend themselves to the “Standard” philosophy, so I spent considerable time deciding what objects to choose to apply my Standard principles to. I decided on three objects, a vanity mirror, a lamp and a side table. The first of the three, the Standard Vanity Mirror, is a table top Vanity mirror that engages the user more intimately than the common mirror. The common mirror’s function—acquiring your reflection—is gained without any physical interaction or decision making. The Standard mirrors mirror side is heavier than the leather side which means that the mirrored side falls easier into the mirrors base, making the mirror more at home with its leather side up. The leather side features several metal stripes that can be used to slide pictures and other flat memories under. This feature is a reference to girls and women keeping pictures and memories around the edge of a framed mirror. To use the mirror the user needs to asses what position it is in and push it in whatever direction it is that that reveals the side they want.

The next object is the Standard Lamp. Unlike most Lamps, the Standard Lamp does not have an on/off switch. To turn it on you choose what type of light you want from three light fixtures and you place it in the copper tower. To turn it off all you have to do is remove it. The three types of light you have to choose from are, a small beam, a large flood and an ambient fixture. you can use them one at a time or all together. When someone uses the Standard Lamp they are forced to make several small decisions that can change every time they use it, what type of light where and at what angle? when a light is removed it stays glowing for several seconds until it fades out. This allows for several things, it makes the experience of turning the lamp off more satisfying by lessening the jarring abruptness of the light turning off. It also works as a sort of electricity buffer so that that if the lamp is shaken or bumped and the contacts on the dowels slightly disconnect from the tower, the light will not flicker because it has a small amount of stored energy. If the Standard Lamp is the last to be turned off there will still be light enough to see the cup to put the light fixture back into.

The last object is a side table called the Standard Floor Coaster. The term Floor Coaster is a name I use instead of side table because its dimensions are quite different than what people think about when they here the term side table. I call it a floor coaster because it is like an elevated drink coaster for the floor. It is meant to be used to hold drinks or other small personal items off the floor adjacent to wherever you might be sitting around your living room. It has large acrylic wheels that allow it to roll along the floor and move easily from one spot to the next. Because of its short height, it is suitable to use beside a swiveling arm chair without being easily knocked over and can be moved easily if you need to rotate your chair often. The Floor coasters mobility means that it is always in a different place making the user think about where it is now and where they want to move it to. As well as being a surface to put things on, it functions as storage for small items that someone would want near while relaxing around their living room. Inside the floor coaster is a quilted leather upholstered base that cushions the objects being put inside.

Before any of the pieces in the Standard Collection could be pushed to a more finished state, I needed to user test the cognitive ergonomics of the three objects. In the user testing some of my assumptions were confirmed and some new insights were brought to my attention. when testing the Floor Coaster, I found that most of the users when asked to put several objects inside it, they dropped them in instead of placing them inside. When asked why, it was because of the low height of the coaster. The leather quilting on the inside of the base is to cushion the things being dropped inside. the direction of the handle was also reversed due to confusion with its use in its previous position. Scalloping was also added to the wheels to accentuate the fact that they were wheels and that they turned. Before actually using it, several users did not understand that they were wheels. The scalloping adds a positional feature to the wheels, when you look at the coaster, the wheels lines in the scalloping will always be at random angles insinuating that they turn and are infact wheels. The scalloping also adds contrast to the overall composition.

When testing the mirror some users asked about the copper tube passing through the mirrors Oak base as if it were a feature and did something other than keep the mirror from falling over. To combat this confusion I added rounded corners to the base to showcase how thin the base is and give it a more precarious form. This enforces the necessity of the tube as a support quelling any subconscious ideas that it might be something more.