Assignment 2: Product and Emotions: Watches

Watches are a daily necessity. It tells the time for a lot of people. Keeps appointment on time, making sure people know the correct time of the day. Besides telling the time, watches have also become a fashion accessory for some people.


Behavioral watches:

A casio watch

These watches either serve the basic necessity of the wearer or offers specific functionality for the wearer. For example, boys in Singapore often use Casio digital watches while serving the army. They are cheap (around SGD$20+) and serve the basic necessity of telling the time, together with a back-lit screen for knowing the time in the dark. Army boys know that their watches will go through rain and mud with them, thus getting a cheap watch which serves the simple purpose of telling the time is suffice. Even if it spoils, the cheap price will not hurt their wallet, and their heart. The design is also very simple and common that there isn’t much to look at or drool at.

A diver's watch

Diving watches, like the one above, is another kind of behavioral watch that is targeted at divers. Though they are slightly expensive (few hundreds), divers will know their true value and often take into account the extra functionalities that cater to their diving needs. Though it doesn’t sport a fancy design, these rugged watches are still designed with slight muscularity, due to the target audience are usually males.


Visceral watches:

Top to down: DKNY, Gucci, Prada watches

Fashion nowadays isn’t complete without matching accessories. Besides wearing the latest season fashion, one would often add in details such as bangles or watches to complete the entire look. These fashion watches are usually designed by big fashion labels such as DKNY, Gucci, Prada etc. Often, the aesthetic of the watch exceeds the functionality. These watches are expensive too (usually from few hundred to a thousand dollars), and they do not offer much functionality except displaying the correct time. People buying these watches are usually brand-conscious or materialistic; they buy for the sake of the brand or for the design. Although there are similar imitations of the designer watch, people often get the genuine for brand-name sake.

Fashion celebreties often advertises these watches by wearing them to galas or runways. Then magazines would also photograph these celebs and comment on their fashion. Such branding advertising is surely a way to get brand-conscious people to get their watches.


Reflection watch


Top tp down: Rolex, Franck Muller watches

The finest watches. Timeless watches. These watches exhibit class, status. Usually owned by the wealthy, celebrities or royalties, owning this separates one from the rest of the commons. They are usually hand-crafted by the finest watchmakers, resulting in a timeless masterpiece. Brands suck as Rolex, Franck Muller, or Patek Philippe & Co. fall under the fine watches category. Some watches are made with gold, or encrusted with diamonds, they exhibit an aura enough to capture one’s attention. Since they are usually associated with the rich, famous and royalties, having one on your wrist just makes you feel different. Mention it is a Rolex or Franck Mullar, people will look at you, or perhaps even treat you differently.

Of course, you must be able to afford that difference, at a cost of at least SGD$1000 to SGD$10000 or more. It is an entire different crowd from the rest, my friend.

Patek Philippe & Co. Watch. Costs a bomb.

Washing your dirty hands at a Basin

Toilet is everyone's best friend. Its probably the most frequent place we go in our entire lives...

You have just done your toilet business and you head for the basin to wash your hands, that's good hygiene. So this is what you see at the basin:




You reach for the tap's handle. Oh my gosh, you can't find it! Relax. It could probably be an automatic tap. Intuitively, you place your hand under the hose. Nothing comes out.

Don't panic yet. You move your hand around to capture the automatic sensor. Nothing comes out still! After some scratching of head with your dirty hands and playing with the tab, you trying turning this nob,





Water comes out. Salvation at last.


Tap Review:

There are a few standard design for taps:

1. Twisted Nob: The nob is very obvious which usually sticks out of the tap itself
2. Flip switch: a lever style switch that controls the amount of water coming out of the tap.
3. Automatic: placing the hand at the right place that allows the sensor to capture

For this tap design, it would be design 1. But the twisted nob is not obvious at all.



From the image above, there is no nobs sticking out of the tap to make it apparent to the tap user. It would be only after elimination of the type of design (ie from flip to automatic then finally nob), the user would then try to find out where the nob is. The protruding line on the nob MIGHT give a clue to the user that it is a twisted nob, but some people might think it is part of the tap's visual design.



I was around to witness another toilet commuter figuring out how to use the tap. He had his hand under the tap hoping water will come out (he thought it was automatic). After a bit of thinking, he tried twisting the nob.

Solution:

If the tap is using a twisted nob design, make it obvious. Visual cues on the nob, such as arrows indication, would greatly help users understand that that is a NOB for water. Making the entire nob a single color along with the entire tab will not help in guiding the user.

And toilet users won't feel like an idiot playing with the tap, figuring how to get water out.

Opening a Toothpaste

I was browsing through Bad Designs and came across on the article of "How do you open a toothpaste". I agree with author, that it isn't very obvious on how to open the toothpaste seal (using the piercing tool). However, the design suggestions made by him wasn't really feasible.

1. Using a cap that un-seals while screwing it open: If it was possible, it would have been done. But if the tube was squeezed tightly while the cap is still unsealed, I believe its contents will seep out through the small capillaries of the screw mechanism.

2. Directions on how to open: It kinda wastes printed space on the tube itself. Companies (usually) won't do this as I think they have lots of info to put on the tube. And, they would probably have a mindset that consumers KNOW how to use the piercing mechanism. A BIG probably.

Rather, I think a good solution would be color-coding the Piercing Mechanism and the surface of the seal area. The color would have to be outstanding and caught noticed by consumers. The matching colors on both the piercing mechanism & sealed surface would allow consumers to understand that these 2 parts MATCH each other. And, Something sharp + Flat surface = Pierced Surface. The last step, once noticed by the consumer, is intuitively known to him (and all).

Testing

My first Blog post. Really. Well, its the 4th rather. The first 3 was for another school project.

Enjoy my critiques on product designs. :-)