Context Connection: A Product Creative Design Method for Integrating Design Materials and Design Resources

This study investigates the design method of integrating design resources and design materials with an explanation of the foundations of cultural psychology. It focuses on the integration of design resources and design materials in product creative design. This article outlines the design process of integrating design resources and design materials based on user centered design (UCD) and develops a design tool named “Context Connector (CC)” using cultural symbols (as design resources) and products empowered by machine learning (as design materials) as examples. Because cultural symbols can affect how people use and perceive things, researchers have been talking a lot lately about how to improve the user experience of machine learning-empowered products. Through the experiment of finding designers to use the design method to complete product creative design, it has been confirmed with the empirical evidence that this method can assist designers, to a certain extent, in fusing cultural symbols and machine learning empowered products more reasonably and innovatively in the design process, improving design efficiency and experience. Finally, this paper analyses the benefits and drawbacks of CC as well as the scope for future research and application of this design method.