October 14, 2003
None of this website stuff!
BBC NEWS | Technology | Technology to make you go 'wow'
"Wow!" I exclaim, smiling.
"You see, that's what I'm all about now: none of this website stuff, none of this digital stuff," explains the man who has published extensively on design and how people use objects in their everyday lives.
"I want to make products like this fountain pen that creates such joy when you see it, and you say 'oh wow' and the first thing you want to do is try it."
Beauty, pleasure and simplicity of use are what people care about now when it comes to technology, according to the design guru.
Don Norman is a very interesting character and in my humble opinion worth listening to. Is he right? Do people not want 'digital stuff'? Quite devastating for the Broadband/Internet / Electronic industry if he is right. Or is it an opportunity to make the virtual more real? By that I mean making the intangible become more tangible by designing 'objects' that interact with the virtual but have the emotional appeal that Norman speaks of.
The closest I can get in my mind to this at present is something like the Philips Streamium 
or maybe the Linksys Media Adapter but they are not quite there, either aesthetically or functionally.