the Reader's
Lamp

a lamp to challenge the default switch interaction

01
keywords

field

Product Design

tools

C++; Arduino Nano BLE 33; Supplyframe PCB Lamp

duration

1 week, 2023

project type

design sprint in teams of 4
problem

Light is a versatile design material. Yet, our interaction with artificial light is usually one-sided and binary.

Natural light ranges from sunrise to bio-luminescence, from the Northern lights to fire, with a great diversity.
Artificial light nowadays is present everywhere from the streets to LEDs in chargers.
Despite the ubiquity of artificial light, interacting with it is mostly limited to on/off switches.
In our design challenge, our task was to create a quick prototype of a lamp that challenges this conventional binary input.

our solution

A lamp for readers, not (only) for reading

Our prototype proposes a book-shaped ambient lamp whose brightness and temperature are adjustable to match the user’s current activity. It ranges from a “candle” light (1500K) which has a warm and relaxing effect to white light (9500K) which helps stay awake and focused.

NOTE The quality of the camera modified the appearance of the light. It ranges from approx. 1500K to 9500K.

/the metaphor

a book

/the interaction

opening-closing

Instead of “switching” between different moods, our goal was to afford an interaction that is
(1) integral to its metaphor, &
(2) continuous (to replace the switch interaction).
‍
To achieve this, we chose the book metaphor with the
‍opening - closing interaction. To make it continuous, its light ranges from a white and sharp light to help focused work to a warm, dimmed light for relaxing.

our process

activity

main outcomes

Researching & Ideating about Arduino sensors
Creating 12 sketches based on the built-in sensors of Arduino

On Monday, upon receiving the design challenge, we got an introduction to our design material: a Supplyfame PCB lamp starter kit as the light output and an Arduino Nano BLE 33 microcontroller as the controller, but also an input device.
First, we mapped out the different sensors of the given microcontroller and challenged ourselves to come up with at least one idea for each.
The image below shows a stage of our mind map, where the words in rectangles signify the sensors, to which we connected our related ideas. By the end of the session, we collected a total of 12 ideas.

Researchingthe use of household lamps
Discovering a need for "functional ambient lamps"

On Tuesday, we conducted short interviews with arbitrary people around us to learn more about their use of household lamps. The interviews revealed a need for ambient lamps that are easily adjustable to allow complete relaxation. Based on this, we further narrowed our ideas down to 3 (in the picture: the ones with asterisks next to them).

Ideatingabout the shape and use of the book lamp
Striving for a light-weighted portable lamp whose functionality ranges from task lamp to ambient lamp

In our next ideation phase, we "bodystormed" about the 3 different ideas and came up with a slightly new framing: we wanted to create a lamp for readers. The reason behind this is that we realized that reading is a combination of relaxing and focusing: you need to have a functional lamp to prevent eye fatigue, but essentially, it still has to create a cozy ambiance.
We sketched out four different ideas for its shape. Finally, we picked the idea of the "Pinterest-famous" book-shaped lamp, as we wanted to prioritize lightweight portable ones over standing lamps to afford more flexibility. We decided that our contribution would be enhancing the book metaphor by creating a behavior that is integral to it.
Therefore, we chose to use the "opening-closing" interaction as it opened up the possibility to create a range from ambient lamp functionality to task lamp, which we saw as a possible solution to bridge between "functional" and "relaxing" lamps.

Prototyping & Testing
Material exploration

My groupmates were working on the cover of the book. In the meantime, I got started with the code.  The general idea is that the more opened the book is, the more dimmed the light should be to serve as a decoration. Accordingly, the more closed it is, the brighter and more direct the light should be.
From the user testing, we concluded that not only the brightness but also the temperature of the light shall change.
In the picture, you can see a stage of making the lampshade

Prototypinglight behavior & temperature
Converting the Kelvin scale to RGB to express the temperature of light.

We did some research on how to convert the Kelvin light scale into RGB to express the temperature of the light with the Supplyframe LEDs. This way, the light of the lamp was more direct, but also whiter, "colder" if it was slightly open. It arched over more neutral temperatures while getting opened more and more until it reached the warmth of a candle light when opened completely.

Testing & Presenting
Presenting the prototype to express and deliver the concept.

The quick final testing and analysis within the group confirmed an assumption of ours: the current material, paper, worked greatly with the light ranging from "lukewarm" white light to warm ambient light. However, it dimmed it too much for the task lamp function: even though the temperature was right, it wasn't sufficiently bright to provide the necessary direct light that would enhance focusing.
However, the goal of this prototype was not to be fully functioning but to express the designed experience. With the help of the prototype in the picture, we believe we successfully delivered our concept at the presentation at the end of the week which concluded our design sprint.