"As light as a leaf": Product Metaphor Generation for Experience-Driven Design

Metaphors are effective tools for experience-driven design since they are a powerful means for expressing the meaning of products. To generate a metaphor, designers have to select a ‘source’ conveying a meaning, take at least one attribute from this source and transfer it to the product they design (i.e. target product). In this paper, the reason why particular entities are selected as ‘source’ and how certain attributes of that source are mapped onto the target product are addressed. A workshop was conducted with design students who were instructed to convey ‘lightness’ in their designs by way of a metaphor. The workshop outcomes indicate that when looking for source domains, students got inspiration from concrete entities from nature, biology, everyday objects, actions or other cultural artifacts. They select entities from these domains as sources if they convey their intended meaning saliently and match appropriately with the attributes of the target product. After selecting the source, its sensorial properties, movements and/or interaction patterns are mapped onto the attributes of the target product. This workshop is one of the first attempts to include metaphors as a research subject in product design, and aims to contribute to product experience knowledge by providing a source for creating meaningful and pleasurable experiences