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Evocative Objects
From Stephen Fry's new, weekly Guardian technology column:
Apple gets plenty of small things wrong, but one big thing it gets right: when you use a device every day, you cannot help, as a human being, but have an emotional relationship with it. It's true of cars and cookers, and it's true of computers. It's true of office blocks and houses, and it's true of mobiles and satnavs. A grey box is not good enough, clunky and ugly is not good enough. Sick building syndrome exists, and so does sick hand-held device syndrome. Fiddly buttons, blocky icons, sickeningly stupid nested menus - these are the enemy. They waste time, militate against function and lower the spirits. They make the user feel frustrated and (quite wrongly) dense. Mechanisms so devilishly, stunningly, jaw-dropping clever as the kind our world can now furnish us with are No Good Whatsoever if they don't also bring a smile to our face, if they don't make us want to stroke, touch, fondle, fiddle, gurgle, purr and coo. Interacting with a digital device should be like interacting with a baby.
Made me think of Sherry Turkle — see previous post — and Evocative Objects:
For Sherry Turkle, "We think with the objects we love; we love the objects we think with." In Evocative Objects, Turkle collects writings by scientists, humanists, artists, and designers that trace the power of everyday things. These essays reveal objects as emotional and intellectual companions that anchor memory, sustain relationships, and provoke new ideas.
(I can't resist quoting Fry's last paragraph: "If I had a grain of rice for every minute I have spent watching a progress bar over the years, I would be able to make you all a bowl of kedgeree. As it is, I shall cook you all up a weekly article instead. I do hope you'll be able to join me. See you next Saturday.")
October 28, 2007 in Culture & Society, Design, Digital life, Technology | Permalink
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Comments
That's a nice pairing. Here's another gem from Fry's column that got me going (emphasis mine):
"Well, people can be dippy about all things digital and still read books, they can go to the opera and watch a cricket match and apply for Led Zeppelin tickets without splitting themselves asunder. Very little is as mutually exclusive as we seem to find it convenient to imagine. In our culture we are becoming more and more fixated with an "it's one thing or the other" mentality....So, believe me, a love of gizmos doesn't make me averse to paper, leather and wood, old-fashioned Christmases, Preston Sturges films and country walks."
There's too much silver bullet, cure-all, black and white, one-size-fits-all, "either your with us or against us" attitude in our society, and unfortunately our education system (at least in the US) often models it well. I made mention of this back in May as I commented over at Artichoke's blog (which I think you'd like if you don't already have it in your feed).
By the way, thanks for a great del.icio.us feed. I truly appreciate the links you collect and share. Have a good week.
Posted by: robertogreco | 29 Oct 2007 07:34:26
I really enjoyed what you said over at Artichoke's blog:
"I am more inclined to recommend that professionals (in education and otherwise) spend a good portion of their time interacting with those who work in much different fields than their own. By listening to the processes and goings-on in these other walks of life, we can often stumble upon solutions for the problems that we are attempting to solve. It's not that we are handed neatly packaged solutions, but that new perspectives pull us off of the well worn rails that we have such a hard time jumping."
Posted by: David | 4 Nov 2007 12:33:42
