On Dec 31, 2009, at 2:22 PM, Dan Saffer wrote:
I've seldom seen designers or researchers then propose a new
technology that would then do what is necessary. At many companies,
this would be laughed at. I assume this would be possible in some
large companies, academia or research labs. (In theory, this should
be what academic research and R&D labs are for.)
What I don't understand is why anybody is thinking Don is saying
anything new?
I wrote about this in 1997: http://www.uie.com/articles/
market_maturity/ (Damn, I hope my writing has gotten better since then.)
Ed Chi, in the comments to the Nussbaum post (timestamped: "December
27, 2009 03:58 AM" - the dude needs to sleep more), mentions that he
thought the laser printer was a potential challenger to Norman's thesis:
"But, the real world is messy, you'd say---sometimes the need precedes
the invention, and other times it follows. I'd say "Yet other times,
they co-evolve." The invention of laser printing is a good example of
the need and the technology co-evolving. The need to mass produce
paper documents had been around for a long time. But later as people
started using computers, the need to translate graphics on the screen
into marks on paper evolved at the same time."
but then he sums it up with:
"I suppose one could argue that Xerography was the invention, and
laser printing was merely a refinement. We can go round and round on
that debate and not get anywhere."
I think the makers build and tweak first. In their case, it's all
about learning the medium. How far can we push it? What can it do?
Until we have a chance to see what the experiences are like from that
experimentation, we can't begin to understand how it fits into our
lives.
So, Donald Norman, welcome (once again) to our world. We're glad
you're finally joining us. :)
Jared
Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: [email protected] p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks Twitter: @jmspool
________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... [email protected]
Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
