DESIGN OF FUNCTIONS BY FUNCTION BLENDING
Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Reich, Y.
Author: Park, Yu; Ohashi, Shota; Yamamoto, Eiko; Taura, Toshiharu
Series: ICED
Section: Design Theory and Research Methodology
Page(s): 61-72
Abstract
This study aims to develop a method for supporting the design of a new function. Currently, in product development and design, the question “What should we create?” is the main issue to be addressed, whereas, previously, the main issue was “How should we realize the given function?” In this study, we approach the current issue by designing a new function. We propose the method of “function blending” to support the design of a new function structure. This method is systematized from a linguistic viewpoint so that a new function structure can be derived using linguistic hierarchal relations. We develop the formulation of function blending in a function dividing process, and a method for developing a thesaurus for function blending. Finally, we confirm the feasibility of the proposed method.
Keywords: THESAURUS; LINGUISTIC HIERARCHAL RELATION; FUNCTION DESIGN; FUNCTION BLENDING