Sunday, April 06, 2003
Balancing Form and Function ...Ever since I fell in love with my Macintosh, I gave people a convenient box to place me in - "IT expert", "computer whiz". This is nothing short of a tragedy. I fell in love with the Mac OS because it was a revolution in usable computing. Sure, I am a tech enthusiast and a sexy new gadget from Palm or Apple will turn me on more than a piece of jewellry but that's about it. Actually, even 3 lines of XML code will turn me on more than a piece of jewellry but that's not the issue here ...
The Mac OS liberated those of us who couldn't get past the friggin C: prompt. The computer for the rest of us - insanely great! The Macintosh is a perfect balance of form AND function. Great looking and kick-ass functionality. People like Tog really cared about human beings and how we interact with machines/technology. Cars, houses, showers, teapots - everything that is designed is going to be used - by real people. The user of one of these creations is far more important than the ego of the designer. The teapot on the cover of Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" is a perfect example of sacrificing function for form. Stupid beyond all comprehension. Badly designed products make their users feel dumb because the average individual cannot conceive that the designer could possibly be at fault. "It must be me! I can't figure out this shower, so I must be an idiot."
I spend 3/4ths of an average day fretting about the nature and dynamics of the user experience, not about the technology that will power the experience. It's about the user - not about Flash, ASP or .Net. More on this later ...
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