Products are not nouns but verbs. A product designed as a noun will sit passively in a home, an office, or pocket. It will likely have a focus on aesthetics, and a list of functions clearly bulleted in the manual… but that’s it.
Products can be verbs instead, things which are happening, that we live alongside. We cross paths with our products when we first spy them across a crowded shop floor, or unbox them, or show a friend how to do something with them. We inhabit our world of activities and social groups together… a product designed with this in mind can look very different.
The Life of Products
Air Jordan XI Original Sketches By Tinker Hatfield
“Things that are easy to use survive, regardless of what is fashionable, and people want to use them forever,” Yanagi said in a 2002 Japan Times article. “But if things are created merely for a passing vogue and not for a purpose, people soon get bored with them and throw them away.
“The fundamental problem,” he added, “is that many products are created to be sold, not used.” —Sori Yanagi
Connecting Concepts: Dutch design.
Meet a Maker: Tae Kim (Editor’s note: My friend Tae is a camping product designer and he is awesome.)
SFMOMA: Less but Better – A Conversation with Dieter Rams
A great rant on what the future of interaction design currently is and why it’s not enough. (via Imprint Culture Lab)
Milton Glaser
Occupy Design, building a visual language for the 99 percent.
