ClutterBeacon is an ambient wake-up lamp designed to offer a non-verbal, emotion-driven experience that replaces textual instruction with interaction aesthetics. The lamp reacts to environmental clutter, curling downward like wilting branches suggesting a neglected space, rather than explicitly instructing the user to clean.
My approach was deeply influenced by the Frogger framework, using feedforward and feedback to communicate meaning through movement, color, and physical coupling. Rejecting literal metaphors, I took inspiration from Studio DRIFT’s Meadow to explore how minimal, dynamic forms can still evoke natural, organic behavior. The final form blends invisibility and presence, remaining subtle in shape and color but expressive in behavior.
During the design process, I applied Interaction Relabeling by analyzing a stapler to rethink object affordances. This inspired early iterations where function followed form, rather than vice versa. Prototyping was grounded in Experience Prototyping, focusing on how the lamp's response would feel when triggered in context.
This project refined my vision to design without instruction, using movement, materiality, and irony to shape behavior and perception. While I later discovered the Boalum lamp by Castiglioni, which also resembles a ventilation tube, this coincidence reinforced that originality lies not in form alone, but in interaction and intention. My choice to embed behavioral feedback into this material allowed the design to feel familiar yet emotionally intelligent.
