User-Centred Design: A Palm-Sized Light as a Part of Home Living

Nowadays, Hong Kong is facing serious housing problems. It is identified that insufficient light source is associated with small living space. In view of the generalization of poor living standard, we are inspired to design a user-centred product to alleviate people's troubles in life. Light is the source of life, affects our psychological well-being and brings hope in spiritual meaning (Chris, 2021). Thus, we design a light to brighten up users’ daily activities. Its form is a cube plus a pad. The key features are (i) compatible: users are able to transfer the light from one place to another through attaching the cube to multiple pads; (ii)portable: which enable users to grab the light with few efforts; (iii) efficient: users can adjust the brightness and warmness of the light by clicking a few buttons. This paper first examines the social problem and users’ difficulties. After problem identification, it explains our design concept and goal. To make a user-centred design, it is crucial to collect first handed research, descriptive research is used in this study. In the first experiment, participants are asked to grab 3 cubes in 8x8x8(cm), 9x9x9(cm) and 10x10x10(cm) one by one. Observational research method helps to understand users‘behaviour and actual view. It also guided us to validate our design assumption: (1) There is a relationship between palm size and preferred light size. People with larger palm size like larger light, vice versa. (2) There is a relationship between hand gesture in holding the light and their preferred light size. Furthermore, there is also unexpected finding in the first experiment, which the choice of cube size reveals masculine traits behaviour. In the second experiment, participants are given a card and asked to place the buttons in their own way. Interview is carried out afterwards to better understanding users’ preferences and concerns. The above research contributes to a great improvement in our final design. It is more human-centred and inclusive.