INDUSTRIAL-DESIGN ENGINEERING AND THE THEORY OF DIRECT PERCEPTION ANDACTION

The purpose of this article is to examine and describe how designers-i ndustrial design engineers in particular-can benefit from the ecologic al theory of perception or, as it is sometimes called, the theory of d irect perception, the foundations of which lie in the work of J. J. Gi bson (1986). The outcome of this quest is at once disappointing and pr omising. It is disappointing in the sense that, although the theory is booming in the design of computer-human interaction and is beginning to have an ergonomic impact, it has nevertheless achieved little in th e development of new technological products or their aesthetic design. It is promising in the sense that greater achievement in the future i s both possible and, for two reasons, I believe, probable. The first r eason is the observation that, as times goes by, the practice of indus trial design and this kind of research into perception are gradually g rowing closer and closer together. Both of them are concerned with the functionality of a product, without forgetting that the feelings that a product elicits can be highly functional; for this reason, both of them are concerned with visualizing the possible ways of holding and u sing a product. In the case of product design, this is elucidated by r eference to examples developed on an intuitive basis, and in the case of the theory of perception, by reference to examples of the neatly fo rmalized affordances of human-environment interactions. However, the l ist of these has yet to become long enough to be genuinely useful to a designer. The second reason is more important. It states that the res earch methodology of the ecological theory of perception is gradually growing closer and closer to the methodology of design. It concentrate s on the measurement of interaction patterns, rather than the measurem ent of elements of interaction. This is tellingly illustrated by the K oenderink, Van Doom, and Kappers (1992) method. Most important of all, however, is that it has room for a simulation of human-product intera ctions (the perception-action loop) that can evolve as a product is be ing used. It offers a dynamic, evolving simulation instead of a snapsh ot. This is illustrated by reference to a software package that can be used for design with a virtual reality computer system.