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Left The luminaire search engine on the new LUMsearch site from DIAL. Top right The search results are presented as a list of products featuring company logos and thumbnail images.
Bottom Right Users can refine search terms to include IP rating, distribution and luminaire shape. Above The site has been designed to work on tablets and phones so it can be used anytime.
tablets and phones to enable last minute specification of lighting products while on site or away from the office. At the moment four languages Italian, English, German and Chinese are supported. It is understood that the site is receiving around 5,000 hits per month and at the moment DIAL are not saying which prod- ucts are getting the most interest or click throughs, which could be useful data for manufacturers. After using the site for a few hours I get the feeling that it is still a work in progress and not completely functional yet. The search engine seems to produce some random results. A search for LED bollards started showing wall lights and post tops after the
first couple of pages. Maybe this was due to key words included in the manufacturer’s data sheet text but in some other searches the results were just random. A search for Flexible LED linear produced results for street lighting. Adding more search crite- ria did not always eliminate these random results and sometimes added new ones. It is understood that a feedback function will be introduced next year so that users can let DIAL know about random search results and other search problems. In use the site produces results quickly but the images are hard to read even on a large screen so that each product has to be clicked on to see the data sheet before deciding if the product is relevant. Mul-
tiple product listings for essentially the same product come up with most searches which also makes the process rather slow. Compared to using Google image search this seems quite an old fashioned approach. A luminaire search system that integrates directly with DIALux and produces pdf data sheet information so quickly is definitely a good idea and once the search engine and data base have been refined and developed I am sure this will be a very useful and much used resource for designers. David Morgan runs David Morgan Associates, a London-based international design consultancy specialising in luminaire design and development.
www.dmadesign.co.uk
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