A Research on the Ceramic Tea Set Design Based on Ergonomics

Hui Ma

, K. N. Mustaffa Halabi

and Nana Li

Faculty of Creative Industries, City University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

School of Art and Design, Hefei University of Economics, HeFei, China

Keywords: Ceramic Tea Sets, Ergonomics, Use Behavior, Psychological Feelings.

Abstract: Tea culture is an important part of Chinese traditional culture. As the main appliance of drinking tea, ceramic

tea sets have become one of the necessities of people's daily life after thousands of years of design and

development, and are closely related to people's life. In the context of diversified development, tea sets not

only need to meet people's needs of drinking tea, but also pay more attention to physical and psychological

feelings. Tea sets need to meet the needs of modern material and spiritual civilization in more and other

aspects. This paper takes the ceramic tea sets as the research object, combined with the relevant theory of

ergonomics, systematically discusses the composition and function of the human-machine interaction

interface of the ceramic tea sets, and expounds from the perspective of human use habits, hand physiological

characteristics and the influence of use safety on the shape of the tea set. From the perspective of people's

psychological feelings, the human psychological characteristics and its influence on the color and shape of

ceramic tea sets are studied, so as to provide guidance for the design of ceramic tea sets.

1 INTRODUCTION

As one of the important components of Chinese

traditional culture, tea culture is closely related to

people's daily life, forming a distinctive style of the

times. Tea set is an important material product among

Chinese ceramic varieties, as well as the spiritual

wealth of Chinese culture, which perfectly reflects the

integration of science and technology and aesthetic

art. The development of social economy, the progress

of science and technology, the promotion of culture

and art, the change of times and customs, and the

change of aesthetic concepts in the past dynasties are

reflected in the plastic arts of tea sets, which makes it

not only have the unique national style of the Chinese

nation, but also have a strong sense of the times and

distinctive artistic characteristics(Wu,2013).Today,

tea drinking has become a fashion to eliminate

fatigue, enhance friendship, improve the artistic

accomplishment of the host and guest, and cultivate

the temperament of the host and guest. It reflects the

leisure, elegance and optimism of people who love

life.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5633-6836

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1940-8519

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4157-8274

Tea set, as a daily necessities, although it has very

beautiful decoration, is more often used as an

instrument for entertaining guests than simply as a

work of art. Therefore, the design of ceramic tea set

should put its practicality first. In the hundreds of

years of design process, the shape of the tea set has

been basically fixed. The designers are more

interested in the design of tea set decoration, that is,

the design of painting on the surface of the whole set

of tea sets, which simply meets the aesthetic needs of

users. Even if there is a design that changes the type,

it is also to pursue the artistic effect it conveys. These

designs ignore the practicality of the tea set as a tool

for daily life, Neglected the interactive relationship

between tea sets and people, and ignored the concern

for human nature. At present, the progress in science

and technology is changing with each passing

day(Yang and Wang,2015). Many new things and

technologies emerge one after another. With the

overwhelming supply of products in the market

exceeding the demand, the market competition has

entered a white hot stage. Most enterprises in China

realize that products are ultimately used by people

Ma, H., Mustaffa Halabi, K. and Li, N.

A Research on the Ceramic Tea Set Design Based on Ergonomics.

DOI: 10.5220/0012000000003536

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Water, Ecology and Environment (ISWEE 2022), pages 229-234

ISBN: 978-989-758-639-2; ISSN: 2975-9439

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

229

and made for people. The degree of consumer

demand for products is the key to the survival of

enterprises Comfort has become one of the main

factors affecting product sales. Especially with the

continuous improvement of material and cultural

level, people's requirements for products are not only

the beauty of appearance and the realization of

functions, but also the physiological and

psychological feelings.

The people-oriented principle advocated by

interaction design has brought high added value and

favorable position in the competition to products, so

more and more enterprises begin to pay attention to

interaction design. Interaction design uses the

research results and methods of various disciplines

such as ergonomics, human physiology and

psychology, anthropometry and social science to

study various characteristics of human physiology

and psychology and their impact on human behavior.

It plays an important and special guiding role in the

production and development of best-selling products.

Interaction design emphasizes the coexistence of

users and product use environments, as well as the

construction of interaction places and spaces. It

requires users to feel an experience brought by two-

way information exchange between people and

products during the use of products. Interaction

design focuses on how to design products that meet

users' needs. It is committed to understanding target

users and their expectations, and understanding each

other's behavior when users interact with products,

Understand people's psychological and behavioral

characteristics.

2 RELATED WORK

As a kind of daily necessities, tea sets should fully

study various problems that people may encounter in

the use process, and consider the interaction between

the use and being used of tea sets. In the shape of tea

sets, there are three main factors: functional

effectiveness, material technology and form

aesthetics.Ceramic tea set, as a kind of daily use

ceramic, its function and utility should be put in the

first place(Yu,20115). It should make full use of

industrial production materials and technologies to

create a unique formal aesthetic sense of the shape of

the utensil on the premise of meeting the use

requirements.The tea set with reasonable function

provides convenience for people's life, but it will

naturally cause psychological pleasure. The shape of

this utensil contains a rational formal beauty.

In the modeling design of tea sets, it is difficult to

improve and create the function and utility, which is

far more difficult than the renovation of patterns. It is

necessary to break through the thinking set of

traditional tea set modeling design. According to

scientific principles, we should start from the actual

needs of life to think about the design problems. We

should not be bound by the existing form and

structure, highlight the rationality of the modeling,

and give better play to the practical functions of tea

sets. If a tea set cannot meet its basic functional

requirements, no matter how the shape changes, it

cannot achieve the maximum life cycle. In the process

of tea set design, the creation of new types and the

improvement of products are all aimed at facilitating

people's use. The first consideration should be

functionality and reliability. Human factors should be

added to the tea set design as a technology.

Humanized design elements should be added to make

innovation based on full satisfaction of various design

constraints, reflecting the concern for human nature.

This technology can create products in the human

field and better serve people.

Diversification is the symbol of our time. It

enriches people's spiritual life and brings infinite

reverie and fun to people's life. Some tea sets only pay

attention to the diversification aspect in the

development, ignoring the rationalization aspect of

the product, which brings many inconvenience and

regret to people's life(Zhang,2016). In order to further

adapt to the market demand of diversified and high-

quality commodities in modern society, it is

necessary to re-examine the relationship between the

design elements of ceramic tea sets in order to achieve

perfect quality of products and improve the

competitiveness of products. Now the rapid

development of technology has already turned to

people-centered design, and the main difficulty of

design has changed to how to find the most

appropriate relationship between people and products,

and how to study the degree to which the product

structure and "human factors" want to fit. Designers

began to change the focus of design. Design is no

longer simply to make products more beautiful. More

design focuses on making products more in line with

people's needs. Tea set is closely related to people's

daily life. Modern people's demand for tea set is not

only to meet their basic needs for drinking tea, but

also to have more connotation to meet people's

material and spiritual needs.

Ceramic tea sets have certain potential safety

hazards in the use process because of their own

materials and use environment. For example, ceramic

itself is a very fragile material. Broken ceramics will

harm people's body shape. The whole use process of

tea sets is related to boiling water. Some bad designs

are easy to burn people or people break the tea sets

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because of burning(Zhang,2015). Therefore, in the

design process of ceramic tea sets, It is necessary to

take into account the inconvenience or injury of

modeling due to people's natural tendency, and use

the strength of designers to avoid these injuries.

Because human behavior habits and ways are a kind

of natural tendency that is not easy to change formed

in the long-term evolution process, following human

natural tendency can reduce such man-made defects

and hidden dangers to a certain extent, greatly

improve the safety and practicality in product design,

thus making the use of products more efficient,

comfortable and safe.

The interaction between tea sets and people is

realized through human vision and touch. The first

thing to exchange information with people is the

shape and color of tea sets. It makes an impression in

the human brain by stimulating the human visual

nerve(Guo and Liu,2020). The human brain reacts to

the received information, thus forming a unique

psychological feeling, that is, the first feeling of the

tea sets that people contact, At this time, the interface

between people and the tea set is all over the tea set,

and people can see all aspects, including some very

small places, which can make people have different

psychological feelings, because relatively speaking,

people's visual feelings are the most sensitive.

3 TEA SET DESIGN BASED ON

HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Some basic principles should be followed in the

design of objects in contact with hands: first, muscle

static load should be avoided as far as possible. If the

arm must be raised when using tools, the shoulder,

arm and hand muscles will bear static load, which will

lead to fatigue. During the design of the handle, the

arm should be kept in a more natural horizontal state

during the operation, so as to reduce the static muscle

load generated by lifting the arm. Secondly, the wrist

should be kept straight, so as to ensure that any force

applied to the hand will not produce the moment of

rotation around the wrist when it is transferred to the

arm. When the wrist is straight, the wrist joint is in

the middle of the relaxed state. Other states will make

the wrist ache, resulting in reduced grip strength.

Finally, in order to ensure safety and avoid injury, the

use of the product should ensure that the force is

applied to the non vulnerable parts of the hand,

including soft areas such as knuckles, under the

thumb and thick muscles below the fifth finger.

In the whole set of tea sets, the teapot is the main

appliance for making tea. It is composed of the body,

mouth, feet, lid and handle. The parts most in contact

with the hands are the lid and handle. The pot handle

plays the role of carrying the pot. It is required to be

stable, labor-saving, not slippery, not hot, proper size,

reasonable installation position, and convenient for

tea pouring. The bonding part of the handle should be

slightly lower than the lower part of the spout, so as

to maintain coordination and balance. The general

handle is installed in the middle of the pot body, and

the low flat handle is installed in the upper middle

part. The neutral width of the handle should be

appropriate. If the handle is too narrow, it will be hot

to handle; If it is too wide, the center of gravity of the

pot deviates and it is hard to carry it. In general, the

distance from the handle to the body is generally not

more than the maximum radius of the body.

Different sizes of teapots can be grabbed in

different ways. For small teapots, the thumb is usually

used to press the top of the lid, the index finger goes

through the handle, and other fingers hold the bottom

of the pot to pick it up. For this kind of pot, a concave

plane can be designed on the top of the teapot cover

to facilitate thumb pressing. For a pot that can only be

grasped by the handle, the handle should be designed

to keep the wrist straight during grasping, so that the

hand is in the most comfortable state. The most

comfortable hand holding state is to keep the handle

of the teapot at a 10 degree bending angle with the

base of the thumb (see fig.1).

Figure 1: Ceramic teapot handle.

The wrist should be kept as straight as possible to

reduce the pressure on the wrist when the hand is

being held. Tea is brewed with freshly boiled water.

Heat insulation protrusions shall be set at the contact

part of the pot body and fingers to form a heat

insulation space between the fingers and the pot body

to prevent fingers from being scalded(Wang,2021).

This protrusion can use special patterns to meet the

needs of modeling design. The tea cup matched with

the tea set is generally small, without a handle, and

the hand fully contacts the cup body in the process of

grasping, so it is more important to prevent slipping

and scalding. With the continuous improvement of

firing technology, double-layer ceramics have

emerged, which is a good solution to the needs of anti

scalding.

A Research on the Ceramic Tea Set Design Based on Ergonomics

231

The design of the lid should meet one of the most

basic functions: the lid cannot fall off during pouring.

This has certain requirements for the internal

structure of the lid opening. Physically, it is necessary

to ensure that the center of gravity of the lid is always

at the side of the geometric center close to the handle

during the dumping process, so that no torque towards

the spout will be generated (Yin,2018). Therefore, the

lid button of the lid cannot be too large or too high,

which will cause the center of gravity of the entire lid

to lean up. In this respect, the famous "Gropius Tea

Set" does a very good job(fig.2). Its cover button is

close to the eaves on the side of the handle of the pot,

and is consistent with the handle in shape. When

pouring water, people can naturally press their

thumbs against the cover button to prevent it from

slipping. It is often adopted to install triangular

porcelain teeth or lengthen the mouth of the lid at the

lower end of the lid opening. In addition, a small hole

is usually drilled on the lid, so that air can pass

through the hole. When the lid is covered, water will

not overflow from the spout due to the pressure of air.

At the same time, due to the air circulation, the water

will flow smoothly.

Figure 2: Walter Gropius tea set.

For the spout, first of all, it is necessary to ensure

that the spout can flow freely during use, without

water spraying, dripping, sprinkling and salivation,

which are related to the angle, shape, length and

opening shape of the spout. The water outlet angle of

the spout cannot be too large or too small. Too large

water outlet angle will cause the spout to deform

during the firing process. Too small water outlet angle

will make the spout not flow smoothly and will cause

water dripping and leakage at the same time. The

water outlet angle shall be determined according to

the height of the pot. The water outlet angle of the

high type pot shall be smaller, while the water outlet

angle of the low type pot shall be larger. The water

outlet angle of the spout is generally designed to be

about 40 degrees(Chen,2018). The shape of the spout

shall adopt the shape of bending and turning as far as

possible, which can not only coordinate the shape

relationship and balance relationship with the kettle

body, but also play a role in regulating the speed of

water outflow. The root of the spout should gradually

decrease towards the spout mouth, so that the pressure

of the kettle when it is tilted for water injection will

gradually increase, and the water will be full and

powerful. If the water outlet surface of the spout is

larger than the cross section surface of the neck of the

spout, water sprinkling will occur. The opening of the

spout is mostly shaped like a melon seed. The small

part is at the bottom, and the thickness of the spout

outlet is slightly reduced. The shape of the lower lip

of the spout is appropriately treated as a downward

overturned structure, so that the flow can be

controlled more accurately when pouring water. At

the same time, the water cutoff area is small when

collecting water, and there is not much water on the

cross section of the spout to avoid salivation.

As the supporting facilities of the tea set, the cup

mouth should be smooth and round, the mouth edge

should be slightly open, and should not be very thin,

so that the lips can get a better sense of contact. The

shape of the cup mouth should be reasonable. If the

cup mouth is too open, the tea will overflow along the

mouth corner when drinking tea. If the cup is too

much, it will touch the nose when drinking tea, which

is not easy to drink clean, and it is easy to accumulate

tea stains, which is not suitable for cleaning(Liu and

Chen,2020). The shape of "Deng cao kou", a

traditional Chinese utensil, gives a thick and round

feeling(see fig.3). The outward opening edge can give

a good sense of contact with the mouth, and can also

meet the requirements of anti scalding. After the tea

cup is used up, in order to keep it clean and sanitary,

it is generally buckled upside down on the tray, which

requires that the height of the cup handle should not

exceed the cup mouth.

Figure 3: Deng cao kou tea cup.

4 TEA SET DESIGN BASED ON

HUMAN PSYCHOLOGICAL

The influence of psychological feelings on the shape

of tea sets is shown in many different aspects, and

each aspect has its own characteristics. It is necessary

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to study the relationship between the shape of tea sets

and people's psychological feelings from various

aspects.

The continuous change of the shape and part of

the ceramic tea set modeling is a common

means(Ding,2017). Because a basic form of change

appears repeatedly, forming rhythm, the overall

modeling has a sense of rhythm. This rhythm can be

expressed in the vertical shape of the tea set modeling,

but also in the plane shape of the modeling. The

repeated appearance of one basic form forms a

relatively simple rhythm, and the repeated appearance

of more than two basic forms forms a relatively rich

rhythm. The artistic effects of the two forms have

their own characteristics(see fig.4). In dealing with

the longitudinal relationship of the overall shape of

ceramic tea sets, the method of gradual change is

often used. A part of the shape changes from bottom

to top, decreasing or increasing. Each segment is

similar in shape, different in volume, and stacked

together to form a whole shape, showing a gradual

change relationship. This change mode makes the

overall shape more visual impact, and the sense of

hierarchy more distinct. Sometimes, in order to

pursue a more unique sense of rhythm, the tea set will

be divided into different sections with different

heights, widths and shapes(Liang,2017). The

conscious arrangement of the connections between

the sections can form regular changes and enhance

the sense of rhythm of its shape.

Figure 4. Fish scale teapot.

Ceramics are fragile materials. Tea sets made of

ceramics should give people a sense of stability, ease

of movement, and not easy to break. People are not

used to the shape that can not be placed stably and

stand easily, which is easy to knock down. This shape

is easy to cause psychological anxiety. This requires

that the center of gravity of the whole tea set should

been reduced, and the main weight of the shape

should be less than one third of the overall size;

Secondly, the overall shape of the tea set should be

spherical. If one side is high and the other side is low,

it is unbalanced, giving a sense of instability; Finally,

the size proportion of the sole surface is appropriate,

the diameter of the sole increases, and the stability of

the shape also increases(He,2022). Generally, the

intersection of the parallel lines at both ends of the

upper shoulder and the diagonal lines at both ends of

the sole should be higher than one third of the overall

height. In the design process, we should also avoid

some unsafe and uncomfortable feelings caused by

the inherent visual rules of the overall shape

proportion of the tea set(Han,2017). For example, for

a large pot, its handle should not be designed very thin.

Although the strength of the handle is enough to

support the weight of the whole pot filled with water,

people will unconsciously worry when using such a

pot.

The shape of tea set is a dynamic shape, which

contains a kind of spirit and implication. It

emphasizes that the overall shape is integrated from

top to bottom, and the shape is undulating and

coherent, showing a complete situation. In the process

of modeling design of tea sets, if we do not study the

spirit atmosphere that the overall modeling is

displayed outside the shape and contained inside the

shape, the whole modeling will lack charisma, make

people feel cold, stiff and boring, and cannot cause

emotional resonance between users and

designers(Huang,2016). This passion is reflected in

the strength and charm of the tea set modeling. The

strength is used to explain and express a visual feeling

of the tea set, so that people can feel the expression of

strength. Only the tea set with strength and charm is

beautiful, can it have "life", the sense of quantity of

the body can be clear, and the form features can be

prominent, thus strengthening the formal beauty of

the modeling. The tea sets with different modeling

styles will give people different sense of strength.

Some obviously feel a kind of expansion, and some

calmly present a state of freedom. The rough tea set

modeling requires a strong and powerful feeling, the

elegant tea set modeling requires a straight and

beautiful feeling, and the more subtle and soft tea set

modeling requires an internal force, so that it can be

soft with strong, lively, and avoid paralysis and

depression.

The sense of strength in the modeling of tea sets

is the result of a kind of latent consciousness formed

in the process of long-term observation and

understanding of objective things, which is basically

consistent with the mechanical principle of objective

things(Yang and Wu,2015). The sense of strength of

the modeling is mainly expressed through the contour

lines on both sides of the body. The simplest

cylindrical modeling, because the contour lines on the

facade are vertical, shows a supporting force, and to

a certain extent, shows a straight upward force. If the

shape of the cylinder is changed, so that the contour

lines on one side are vertical and the contour lines on

the other side are inclined, the force performance will

change, On the inclined side, there will be an inward

pushing force, which will create a visual sense of

imbalance. The greater the angle of inclination, the

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233

stronger the feeling. If the contour lines on both sides

of the shape are in the form of upward contracting

trapezoid, it will feel pulled up and contracted. If it is

in the form of downward contracting trapezoid, it will

feel like an upward expanding tension.

In the process of modeling design of tea sets, if

you want to obtain a full and substantial modeling

shape, it is mainly to strengthen the expression of

expanding tension from inside to outside, and at the

same time, set off the local contraction force to

enhance the expansion strength, so that the entire

modeling will leave a more profound and clear

impression on the vision. According to the different

expansion and contraction proportions, sizes and

positions, a variety of psychological feelings will be

generated, and the aesthetic feeling of the form of the

modeling will also have a variety of changes. These

changes are determined by the positions of the

strongest points of the expansion and contraction

forces. Some of these strongest points are in the

middle of the modeling, decreasing upward and

downward, giving a feeling of roundness of the shape,

and some of the strongest points are in the lower part

of the shape, It gives people a sense of thickness and

stability. Some of the strongest points are in the upper

part of the body, giving people a sense of slender and

straight. In the design process of tea set modeling, we

should consciously integrate the strength into the

form to increase the connotation of ceramic modeling

design.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This paper mainly analyzes the development process

and design status of ceramic tea set, the use mode,

physiological characteristics, psychological

characteristics and use habits of tea set users, as well

as the study and research of interaction design theory,

and analyzes the problems in ceramic tea set design

and the form and interface of information interaction

between tea set and people, On this basis, the design

of tea sets is analyzed from the aspects of use

behavior and psychological feelings. In terms of use

behavior, this paper analyzes the characteristics of

people's tactile perception, the use behavior of tea sets

and the physiological characteristics of people,

discusses how the shape of tea sets can meet people's

use needs, how to make people use tea sets more

safely and comfortably, and puts forward practical

and feasible solutions. In terms of psychological

feelings, this paper analyzes in detail the influence of

people's psychological characteristics and habits on

the color and shape of tea sets, expounds what kind of

psychological feelings each color and shape gives

people, and how to make the color and shape of tea

sets better meet people's spiritual and civilized needs,

so as to guide the design of ceramic tea sets.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is funded by Anhui Provincial Quality

Engineering Project of Colleges and Universities No.

2021sx130 completed. The statements made in this

document are solely the responsibility of the author.

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