Dave,
Don Norman is dead wrong about this: "that something emotionally
appealing can basically make up for its lack of usability". I may love a
beautiful object, but I didn't buy Philip Starck's lemon squeezer for
its aesthetic appeal; I was hoping to squeeze lemons. (This is the
piece-of-crap kitchen utensil illustrated on the cover of Don's
Emotional Design book).
There's a definition of kitsch that states that anything that purports
to be one thing, but actually does something else is kitsch. A pepper
mill in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, for example. I think Starck's
lemon squeezer falls into that category - sculpture pretending to be a
useful tool.
For what it's worth, here at FatDUX, we use my Web Dogma as a guiding
philosophy. It has stood up remarkably well over the years, simple
because it provides simple heuristics that are not dependent on either
fashion or technology.
See: http://www.fatdux.com/how/our-web-dogma/
Liz Danzico's article on Boxes and Arrows is also relevant:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/dogmas_are_mean
Cheers,
Eric
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Eric Reiss
CEO
The FatDUX Group
www.fatdux.com
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