To come up with a collection of lights and a lighting service as part of my graduation project at NIFT Mumbai.

This project is titled “Obj-et” which comes from two words, Objet (A thing or an object) and et (which means “and”). The idea of this project was to explore the boundaries of lighting design, and to innovate and conceptualize something novel.

The project is in 4 parts: research, product experience, product design and business development. The prototyping was carried out at Imaginarium India Pvt. Ltd.

In the semester before the graduation project, I had designed a series of lamps, and that made me realise that I had an inclination towards lighting design. Therefore, with my preliminary knowledge of lighting, I decided to pursue my graduation project in designing lights. I was not sure as to what kind of lights I would be creating: the design brief remained open-ended for the longest time. Yet, with time, my design process evolved and the outcome of that is this project. If I look back, my aspirations and expectations from this project were to create a lamp that would be highly interactive and would occupy an important place in the user’s life. Most lights and lamps around us remain ignored, and I wanted to challenge that notion via this project.

There were multiple possibilities of addressing this nascent design brief, and this project is a testament to my thoughts and ideas.

PART 1: RESEARCH

1. Can I create a lighting experience that would be highly interactive and would occupy an important place in the user’s life?
2. How can I use 3D Printing as a way to experiment in the process?
3. How can I use abductive reasoning to create a novel addition in the domain of lighting design/lighting service?

Out of all the processes in the research process, a few of them added significant value to the project.

1. Light Lexicon

   When I started this project, I was neither an expert in lights nor was I studying interior design. I had to self learn various concepts/ideas/terminologies. I decided to note them down to create a lexicon of all words related to lights. Some of them are metaphorical, whereas some of them are literal. It became an inventory of words that I could refer to.

   
2. History of Lights

   This exercise helped me understand how lights have evolved and what was the intelligence/motivation to arrive at where we are today. The design language bears resemblance to an electrical circuit with icons that resemble electrical symbols.

   
3. Literature Review

   Although my project was exploratory, through literature review, I could understand the philosophy of light, the importance of visual/physical experience of lights. Lights are not only an aesthetic addition to a space, but also change our perception drastically. They are also associated with making the space warm/cold. There are various colour systems in lighting design that change our perception of a space. Layering a space with different lights also created a change in our mood. There are various forms of light ‘holders’ available that are created around the same lightbulb/tubelight. Each lamp has its specific function.

4. Trend Analysis
   1. Trends in Interior Spaces
      
   2. Trends in Consumer Products
      
   3. Trends in Lifestyle and People
      

      

PART 2: PRODUCT EXPERIENCES

1. Can I devise a strategy for my project that would help me create a unique experience with the way people interact with the lamps that I design?
2. What are existing strategies that successful products have used in their conception? Could I plug them into my project?

1. Identifying an existing strategy

   The key to that was to observe and scour through the products that may appear in our lives to be simple, yet enticing and leave a lasting impression on our minds. A good product is not that that is made only with the best engineering and the best of forms, but one that leaves a mark on the customer’s experience.

   I took three examples, the Apple iPod, Swatch watches and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This was taken from the article, ‘Designing Breakthrough Products’ by Roberto Verganti as part of a Harvard Business Review.

   Next, I noted my observations. There are five common ‘ingredients’ that set them apart in their respective markets. You can find the analysis in the table below.

   
2. Encorporating the strategy for my own project
   

PART 3: DESIGN

To create a unique experience for a consumer to choose and build a lamp, while combining and understanding attributes from their lifestyles to create a unique service for each and every person who interacts with the lamp, by experimenting with 3D Printing during prototyping.

The following were the deliverables that I finalized for the project:

1. Two physical lamps: a task lamp and a table lamp, with 9 pluggable modules that attach to the body of the lamp
2. 3x3=9 physical modules that plug into the lamp, that an AI helps to allocate based on the user’s personality.
3. A gamified website experience that would let users interact with a quiz that allocates which modules and lamps would suit their life the best.

What is A. gamification and B. modular design?

Gamification is the application of typical elements of game playing to encourage engagement with a product or service.Modular design is a design approach that creates things out of independent parts with standard interfaces. This allows designs to be customized, upgraded, repaired and for parts to be reused.

Modular products are not very popular although various attempts have been made to incorporate modular design in daily life objects. In simpler products, such as LEGO bricks, it is easier to create modules. In complex products, such as electronics, it becomes tricky to functionally make modularity work.

Constraints while designing a module:

1. All modules need to be of similar shape families.
2. They should be easy to stack and attach in one of the axes.
3. Material selection should be homogeneous across all modules.
4. Two modules should not be distinct from each other. Design language should be the same.

I decided to design three types of modules across the following parameters:

1. Usable: That can be useful for other purposes in the user’s life, for eg., a screwdriver set module that is attached to the lamp
2. Functional: That lets the user modify the function of the lamp itself, for eg., a knob module that can change the colour of the lamp
3. Desirable: That lets the user add aesthetic additions to their workspace/wherever the lamp is kept. For eg., a planter module that attaches to the lamp.

Concept 2 was chosen and I used FDM 3D Printing to work on the mechanisms.

PART 3: DESIGN

In order to conceptualize a business plan for the product and the service that I had created, I created 4 broad segments that could become potential target audiences. Designers, Boutique Hostels, Co-working spaces and Home-bound design studios are four potential areas where Obj-et had potential.

Although this project was done in 2019, it is still special to me as it is my Graduation Project. I had never done a 6-month long project before. When I started, I made various plans and schedules to stay on track, all in vain. Back then, I didn’t realise that I used abductive reasoning for far too long; by the middle of it I was completely lost. Thankfully, I had brilliant friends and mentors at Imaginarium (thanks Tanmay, Devesh and Nikhil!) who constantly gave me food for thought, sometimes over some real food. 3D Printing was fascinating and I knew nothing about it. I didn’t want to create a hammer and nail project, where I could take the technology, make lampshades and get done with it. I wanted to explore, learn and unlearn many things. That was my intent. I am still fascinated with how light can penetrate through different densities of SLS Printed material. Someday, I want to design something in that space.

As I kept working and discovering new avenues to delve into, I realised that Product Experience was something that I was inclined towards. Due to this inclination turning into an obsession, I slightly deviated from what my University demanded as part of the Graduation Project: which was a collection of lamps/lampshades. I was a majoring in Accessory Design. In fact, this thought led me to eventually pursue a Master’s in Interaction Design.

The jurors critiqued the project and gave me poor feedback, stating that ‘I didn’t have enough prototypes to show’. At that time, I learnt an important skill: how to defend your project. In retrospection, this project was exploratory in nature. Because of the criticism I got, I now know the strengths and weaknesses in this project. More than anything, this project just made me think. It was a very exciting time and I learnt so much in this time.