Refining Excellence
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How Testing and Iteration
Shaped F9 Floor Lamp
Project: F9 Floor Lamp
Brand: Philips
Year: 2023
#UserTesting #Usability #UserCentered #Iteration #Luminaires
In China, parents place a strong emphasis on their children's academic achievements, often leading to long hours of intense studying. This extended reading time contributes to eye fatigue and other vision problems among children. Recognizing this issue, Philips Lighting aimed to create luminaires that prioritize eye care, specifically designed to support extended study sessions and reduce eye strain.
Philips Lighting (Signify) has been a frontrunner in designing desk lamps tailored for children's learning environments, maintaining a leading position in the eye-care desk lamp market. However, in recent years, a new trend has emerged in the lighting industry – the rise of floor standing panel lights. This innovative form factor of panel lights is gradually encroaching upon the market share traditionally dominated by desk lamps.
Beyond merely seeking good brightness levels, consumers are increasingly prioritizing broader illuminating coverage. Panel floor lamps offer an expansive lighting footprint, illuminating larger areas with uniform brightness.
The rising preference for broader illuminated coverage is driven by the active nature of children's activities within their living spaces. Nowadays, children spend even more time at home engaging in diverse activities such as studying, online classes, practicing piano, drawing, exercising, and interacting with family. Their activities extend beyond the study desk. Therefore, our project goal is to enhance the illuminated coverage which support children's various activities in their room.
R&D developed a solution that incorporates an additional upward light source, projecting light upwards with three times the brightness of the downward source. Utilizing optical lens technology, the light is refracted at a wide 150-degree angle, then reflected off the ceiling and walls, achieving extensive illumination coverage of up to 18 square meters, making sure children have the optimal lighting experience every corner in the room.
Our goal was to design a high-performance lighting solution for an 18-square-meter area. However, achieving the required illumination meant creating a bulky, heavy architecture. This presented a challenge: while the lamp would meet the brightness needs, its size and weight could overwhelm users, particularly children, causing discomfort or concerns about stability.
Thus, the concept of "Lightness but reliability" became paramount. We focused on crafting the lamp to exude a sense of weightlessness while ensuring robustness from the user's perspective. Additionally, we explored various aspects including the optimal positioning of the TOF sensor, heat sink integration, user interaction elements, and enhancing the lamp's manufacturing process.
During the ideation phase, we captured a key insight:
users typically place floor lamps beside their desks, causing the brightest area to fall near the desk's edge rather than the center. To address this, we introduced an extended neck detail at the lamp head’s intersection, allowing the light source to reach closer to the center of the desk. This became a defining form feature of our concept.
During the concept evaluation phase, we have conducted 10 rounds user interviews; set-up a user scenario, let users review the concept prototype and give us insights about how they feel about the concept regarding the form and feature.
After user testing, while users agreed with the idea of extending the lamp head toward the desk center, they found the neck design too bulky. They felt that such a heavy structure overhead might create pressure for children while studying and even raised concerns about stability and safety.
Based on this feedback, we revisited our approach. Instead of extending the neck, we explored an alternative solution with a tilted lamp head. By angling the light source upward, we achieved a similar effect
—directing illumination closer to the center of the desk—without adding unnecessary bulk.
Throughout the design development process, we meticulously refined form, detail and color, optimizing from both user experience and usability perspectives. Each iteration was carefully evaluated and polished to ensure the best possible outcome.
Ultimately, we successfully leveraged design to create a seamless transition from the side to the top surface using smooth curves. This made the lamp head appear slimmer and more compact. The streamlined , soft and rounded form enhances its humanized and warm aesthetic, allowing it to blend naturally into users' daily lives.
One of the iconic stance designs is the 5-degree upward tilt of the lamp head. This not only directs light more effectively toward the center of the desk but also gives the lamp a lighter and more uplifting appearance.
Due to the high power of the lamp, additional metal components were needed for heat dissipation.
We integrated a heat dissipation bar with a repetitive linear pattern on the top of the lamp head, increasing the surface area for better airflow and cooling efficiency.
To maintain a cohesive design language throughout the product, we applied the same streamlined approach to the trim and split of the upper light source. This not only enhances the overall aesthetic harmony but also ensures a seamless integration of form and function.
Another standout design detail is the delicate metallic ring surrounding the TOF sensor. This element not only highlights the product’s professional and sophisticated character; it also acts as a refined transition between surfaces, complementing the tilted lamp head, and optimizes the sensor’s precision by allowing the lens to remain perfectly horizontal for accurate detection.
The elongate rectangular user-interface with the illuminated controls offers user a simple and intuitive operating experience. The icon buttons and the adjustment bar will be lighted-up to indicate the controlling status and manipulating guidance on the product.
In addition to the product’s onboard UI, F9 is equipped with Xiaomi’s IoT system. As the design owner, I was also involved in the app UX/UI design, including creating concepts in Figma, collaborating with developers to build prototypes, and inviting UX design experts from our studio to test usability and provide feedback for optimization and iteration.
The final product launched in 2023 and received highly positive market feedback, leading the business unit to introduce a mid-end version, F9 Lite, in 2024. That same year, the design was recognized with three major awards: the iF Design Award, China Successful Design Award, and Design for Asia Award.
