Innovation Design Engineering (MA/MSc)
Jinzhao Li
I always see design as a way to connect people with their surroundings. And in my philosophy design should be simple, enjoyable and engaging. As a designer, my intent is to explore the future of the language and relationship between object and human. I’m curious about the motivations behind interactions and people’s behaviour. Enjoy exploring the emotional connection between people and objects, making products alive, talkative.
The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (Major: Product Design and Manufacture) 2014.09 - 2018.07
IDA Design Awards gold winner 2018
K-Design Award finalist 2020
CO-habitant — Smart homes have been evolving gradually in recent years, and in the coming years, these ‘robots’ are destined to play an important role in our daily lives - not as super-intelligent functional machines, but as technological cohabitants.
Explanation and overview
Working principle
Package
Product
Unique to you
Exploded view
Components — The user could repair the broken ones, or if there is an update on a particular component, the consumer does not need to replace the whole speaker but the specific defect part.
Front view
Side view
Co-habitiant
E-products have been deeply integrated into our lives. Rapid innovation and lowering costs on e-products have significantly enriched and simplified our lives, with numerous benefits. The unintended outcome of this can be an expansion of electronic and electrical waste: e-waste. The problem of e-waste has gradually worsened in recent years. One of the main reasons for this issue is that people are actively or passively buying new devices, rather than keep using old ones or repair broken ones. And most people are not motivated to do so.
However, in our daily life, there are always a variety of different items that make us care for them and love them more. Even if these items were not intentionally designed to be so, for example, a watch handed down by one’s grandfather. One thing these items have in common is that their owners all have an emotional connection to them.
What if an e-product could generate this emotional bonding with the user?
This project is an exploration of how an object ‘communicates’ its status to evoke an emotional attachment between it and user. Thereby, this bonding helps reduce the generation of e-waste.
CO-habitant is an audio speaker. But it is not just a regular audio speaker – it is an individual featuring its own personalities whose behaviours change over time. It is trying to create a good relationship with its user during usage. The speaker communicates its status based on how the user uses it.
When the speaker is first powered on, it will consider the first device, which makes a BlueTooth connection with itself as the master. When the master is getting close to it, it will express happiness, because it probably means that the master is going to use it to play some music. As a speaker, its job is to play music. And the more often you are using this device, the higher the chance that it might dance with the music. It recognises you; it interacts with you, which makes the speaker unique to you.
Thus, the user could distinguish his/her product from thousands of similar products. And recognise this one is my CO-habitiant. During the whole user experience, the speaker will gradually create this emotional bonding with the user. Thus, give him/her more incentive to repair or continue to use it rather than buying new ones.
However, in our daily life, there are always a variety of different items that make us care for them and love them more. Even if these items were not intentionally designed to be so, for example, a watch handed down by one’s grandfather. One thing these items have in common is that their owners all have an emotional connection to them.
What if an e-product could generate this emotional bonding with the user?
This project is an exploration of how an object ‘communicates’ its status to evoke an emotional attachment between it and user. Thereby, this bonding helps reduce the generation of e-waste.
CO-habitant is an audio speaker. But it is not just a regular audio speaker – it is an individual featuring its own personalities whose behaviours change over time. It is trying to create a good relationship with its user during usage. The speaker communicates its status based on how the user uses it.
When the speaker is first powered on, it will consider the first device, which makes a BlueTooth connection with itself as the master. When the master is getting close to it, it will express happiness, because it probably means that the master is going to use it to play some music. As a speaker, its job is to play music. And the more often you are using this device, the higher the chance that it might dance with the music. It recognises you; it interacts with you, which makes the speaker unique to you.
Thus, the user could distinguish his/her product from thousands of similar products. And recognise this one is my CO-habitiant. During the whole user experience, the speaker will gradually create this emotional bonding with the user. Thus, give him/her more incentive to repair or continue to use it rather than buying new ones.