Trans RINA, Vol 153, Part C1, Intl J Marine Design, Jul - Dec 2011 DESIGN REVIEW


NEEDS BEYOND THE FUNCTIONAL: SATISFYING FUTURE SUPRA-FUNCTIONAL NEEDS


D McDonagh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (DOI No: 10.3940/rina.ijmd.2011.c1.7dr) SUMMARY


From the moment we wake to the moment we fall asleep, we engage with products that fill our environments. This helps us to communicate and construct who we are [1]. We engage with products that create our material landscape on both rational and emotional levels [2]. The ‘material landscapes’ we construct within our personal lives and inherit in public environments has a significant impact upon our daily experiences. They affect our work productivity, our feeling of wellbeing, and sense social connectedness. The experience of purchasing, owning and using a boat is an example of how we express and satisfy our needs beyond the functional (e.g. supra-functional). Our material landscape is a dynamic concept that considers the changing needs and roles that we need for our personal and public environments.


1. INTRODUCTION


We fill our home environments with products that represent our achievements (e.g. trophies), our cultural affiliations (e.g. football memorabilia), and status objects (e.g. boats) that provide insight into the selected lifestyle aspirations [3]. In addition, how we display these objects (e.g. highlight, cluster) and even hide stigma objects (e.g. dandruff shampoo) that provide valuable life experience indicators into an individual’s daily life. Our personal environments offer us a flexible place to be social, reclusive, quiet or studious. We design the mood of such an environment through product/object placement, lighting, scented


candles, decoration, furniture, and suchlike. The products and


comfortable our


environments have a significant impact on how we communicate and present ourselves to the outside world (others) and also help to support ourselves with positive affirmations (e.g. family photographs). personal extension


of our homes, that 2. SUPRA-FUNCTIONALITY Bearing in mind that user needs, expectations, and


aspirations are vibrant and frequently change, the designer has many challenges to ensure that design outcomes are appropriate and relevant. Functionality alone will not necessarily satisfy a user; the experience needs to be enjoyable. Supra-functionality refers to the more ephemeral needs of the user that go beyond the utilitarian functionality of the product itself – its beauty, design, style; colors, textures; the physical sensations that makes the purchaser choose one product over another. When price points and functional needs are similar, supra-functionality can be the final deciding factor which makes the customer pick it up off the shelf in the store, and not be able to put it down. The elements that contribute to an enjoyable experience are often rooted in


Figure 1: Hairstyle that illustrates needs beyond the functional (supra-functional)


A critical element in anticipating, identifying and/or fully understanding users


needs insight is and a feel for how products of to observe ‘authentic’


behaviour. This refers to everyday activities that become so mundane the user is almost unaware of their actions. Such authentic behaviour can help the designer develop empathy,


and


environments are really used within day-to-day living. The following images (Figures 2 and 3) provide an example of how an impression interaction can be misleading.


user-product Figure 2 clearly shows a


user engages with a hand-held device (iPod touch). But on closely investigation (refer to Figure 3) the authentic behaviour reveals that the technological device is not


©2011: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects C-51


Boats are a represent a


significant public demonstrate of our supra-functional needs.


our emotional, social, and cultural desires. This has a significant impact on purchase decision-making, user- product bonding, and brand loyalty. In order to meet these needs, designers must actively develop research methodologies that are specifically aimed at collecting design-relevant data that includes these often difficult-to- grasp elements of the supra-functional [4]. Figure 1 provides an example of a hairstyle that while relatively extreme, it clearly illustrates the person expressing themselves and their supra-functional needs.


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