Philips Smart desk lamp

Background

Signify, a Philips-group company, is a global lighting leader. In 2019, it launched a high-end reading and writing desk lamp in collaboration with electronics company Xiaomi. In the early stage of the product design, Touch and Philips cooperated to conduct user research to find opportunities for the new desk lamp design by understanding how users choose their desk lamps and how they use them.

Process

Touch targeted children in elementary and junior high school as research participants. It is because that through a secondary research, we found this type of user represents much of the demand for desk lamps. They normally use desk lamps for a long time since they have a lot of homework. Their parents care about their visual health, but don’t have effective solutions. They can only count on some methods to relieve eye fatigue, such as doing eye exercises, using less electroincs and using massage products.

When selecting the most suitable participants, Touch first interviewed kids by phone and asked them about their habits regarding eye-strain activity, eye-protection product use, lamp brands, favored electronic products and their prices. In order to find the most suitable participants, we also asked these children to send photos of their school assignments.

To better understand the user needs and find subtle habits of users, Touch adopted a home interview method. While communicating with parents about their children's daily life, study habits and lighting requirements, the researchers observed the arrangement of the desk top and the process of doing homework to understand how the children use their current desk lamps.

The Result

Touch analyzed user behavior in three aspects: what the users’ daily life looks like, how the desk lamps fit into their life, and how the users decide which desk lamp they want. We discovered that users not only value the color temperature, but they also hope to develop good study and work habits. 

The insights and data obtained helped Signify’s design team clarify the product concept.