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theoretical and practical aspects of industrial design

about graphs

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updated:  december 1999
 

drink

Caravaggio, Bacchus, 1595-1596
look at the original picture
or click this eccelent site to see many Caravaggio paintings
 
 

An example of structural analysis of a product



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ergonomic elements Elements of the product Contextual elements
H1 = the hand of the user 
H2 = the mouth
P1 = the cup 
P2 = the stem 
P3 = the foot
C1 = the fluid in the glass 
C2 = the tabletop

The corresponding graph



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

graph of a glass

 
The best way to construct a graph is to determine first 'the body' to which al the  specific elements are 'attached, in this case the 'stem'. In a car it would be the 'chassis'. 
It is further advisable to work with groups of elements, like legs, knobs, etc., if there are to many of them and omitting the smaller ones, like screws, hinges, etc. 
The arrows indicate that a particular element is conditioned by the emitter of the arrow e.g. the mouth conditions the rim of the cup. Even if in some cases we can observe the conditioning of the ergonomic or contextual elements by components of the product, this is not the main reason for their particular function, positioning or form. The components of the products, being connected, are reciprocally conditioning. 
All the connection in the graph correspond to specific functions of parts or area's of the product. We can thus classify them as ergonomic, contextual and technologic functions.
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