“Say you need to design an umbrella stand. Some sort of tubular object immediately comes to mind. But Fukasawa insists that we should eliminate this idea. He says all we should do is cut a groove 8mm wide and 5mm deep into the concrete floor at the building’s entrance. Visitors looking for a place to put their umbrellas would be quick to look for a spot to stick the top end. As if the umbrella itself were on the prowl for a place to stand, it would no doubt easily discover the groove that had been set there in anticipation, and all the umbrellas would stand in a neat row. And yet people using it may have no idea that the groove is an umbrella rack. The orderly row of umbrellas would be the result of unconcious behaivour. Fukasawa rests his case: the umbrella rack design is complete unto itself.”
“An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, that allows an individual to perform an action.”
“If an actor steps into a room with an armchair and a softball, Gibson’s original definition of affordances allows that the actor may throw the recliner and sit on the softball, because that is objectively possible. Norman’s definition of (perceived) affordances captures the likelihood that the actor will sit on the recliner and throw the softball. Effectively, Norman’s affordances “suggest” how an object may be interacted with. For example, the size and shape of a softball obviously fits nicely in the average human hand, and its density and texture make it perfect for throwing. The user may also bring past experience with similar objects (baseballs, perhaps) to bear when evaluating a new affordance.”
“Norman’s adaptation of the concept has seen a further shift of meaning, in which the term affordance is used as an uncountable noun, referring to the property of an object or system’s action possibilities being easily discoverable, as in “this web page has good affordance,” or “this button needs more affordance.”
“Don’t ignore the things that on the surface may not seem crucial to creating great advertising. Like spending time to identify what the real problem is — not just the advertising problem but the business problem, and embracing the limits imposed on you. It’s often there the real gem lies.”
Simplicity is the world view of the child or uninformed adult, fully engaged in his own experience and happily unaware of what lies beneath the surface of immediate reality.
Complexity characterizes the ordinary adult world view. It is characterized by an awareness of complex systems in nature and society but an inability to discern clarifying patterns and connections.
Informed simplicity is an enlightened view of reality. It is founded upon an ability to discern or create clarifying patterns within complex mixtures. Pattern recognition is a crucial skill for an architect, who must create a highly ordered building amid many competing and frequently nebulous design considerations.”
- 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Matthew Frederick
I wish I had a collection of strangers’ thoughts. Particularly the thoughts that relate to me. What do these strangers think when I buy my coffee? Do they make comments about my hairstyle? Do they think I walk funny? Do I look better from behind? Am I cute? Do I smell? Do I ever look ‘homeless’?
I wish they were scrawled in each individual’s handwriting,
on scrap pieces of paper,
and stuffed inside a hat.
I wish I had an aggregator to sort through these thoughts. One that censored the extreme opinions and ordered the others in an item by item catalogue. An aggregator that would pick the most salient thought of the day and posted it on a blog. The blog would be private and only I would have the password. I could view it on my iPhone.
Then I could make changes accordingly and live a better life. One where I never worry about what others think.
Tom stood in a subway car. He was looking out the window at nothing while clutching onto a rail. There was a man sitting beside him looking distant. Tom imagined the man pulling a carving knife from his jacket pocket. Then he imagined that knife stabbing Tom twice, once in the heart. Then Tom imagined himself saying goodbye to everyone he ever knew. He imagined himself thinking that he should have written a note to all those people in case he was ever stabbed on a train. Then he rewound his thoughts. He began writing the letter in his head.
“This is a letter to everyone always.
I want you all to know that dying was an incredible experience. I was completely ready for it. It doesn’t hurt a bit and I feel great. If you’re fond of sleep then you’re gonna love this even more. My last moments were incredible and I said goodbye to you all. It was glorious. Just remember: If I can do it, you can too!
P.S. Heaven doesn’t exist, but wherever I am it’s really fun. They have jumping castles.”
He decided the sentiment was right but the words were not. He wanted everyone to know what will happen always would. He imagined everyone at his funeral enjoying themselves except for the people who didn’t get it. He imagined trees that had lived before anyone he might have known, and would live for longer than they ever could. He imagined the world decaying beyond repair. He imagined the universe expanding. He imagined lots of things. Then the train stopped and he left the subway car. Then he forgot to imagine. And lost it all forever.
My favourite saying in the world is, “my best years are ahead of me.” I’m 23. Strong. Independent. Opposite of ‘languishing’. Floating about - as all twenty-somethings do. Wiling away my time in the ‘wings’ of ‘this great play’. The play is titled ‘Life’. Credited to ‘God’. Some say he didn’t actually write it. They say he had a ‘ghostwriter’. Ha. I don’t believe in ghosts. Apparently God and J.D. Salinger are friends. They both live in exile. No one knows what either looks like. Although God did have a famous son once. He was an author too. Died tragically of course, as all good writers do. David Foster Wallace was a friend of his. As was Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes.
I just read this story on the local newspaper resource, The Age Dot Com, about ‘our best years being ahead of us’.
“A study of US super-centenarians aged 110-119 found that about 40 per cent needed little assistance or were independent, ’suggesting that super-centenarians are not more disabled than are people aged 92 years’.”
“They say that if current trends continue, more than half the babies born since 2000 in wealthy nations such as Australia will celebrate their 100th birthdays.”
Compare me as an infant to, say, a 58 year old. Starting my life, fresh out of the proverbial womb, with no teeth and difficulties ‘moving my bowels’. (Sorry dad. I know 58 year olds rarely have either of those things. It was a ‘metaphor’ to help the story ‘move forward’.) Now jump 23 years ahead and I’m 81. That’s a good chunk of life right there. That’s my entire life span so far. What will I want to achieve in those years? Will I print off a quote on my hologram computer to hang above my bed reading, “Just enjoy life”?
Maybe most of it will be spent sleeping. The dream world will be the only place left to explore. What a great life this is. Are you having fun? Isn’t this absurd!?
How does it feel to be 102 years old, with so many children of children of children below you, each one looking up and waving hello? When your children’s children are 43 and their children are fighting wars? How does it feel to see a fifth generation struggle to be cool? Does it make you laugh? Does it make you smile? Does stink? Does it ruin? Does it fuck you up?
Or does it make you see all the things they can’t?
Hello dear readers. How are thee? Well, I suppose? That is marvelous.
This band is called Fucked Up. They are very good. Although I’m not sure if I desperately want to be at one of their gigs, or fear dying if I were to ever set foot in one of their so called ‘moshpits’. Looks more like ‘the armpit of hell’ if you ask me. Must smell like it too.
Are you consistently late to pick-up on the latest internet trends? Do you ever feel like the laggard in that stupid marketing graph? Does it make you question your validity as a connoisseur of the wwworld? A virtual flaneur? A ‘digital native’? Sometimes I do. Sometimes I feel less of a person. But then I realise I am special. I am worth money in the virtual webula. I am worth something to the world.
Maybe if I had been first to this Virtual Knee Surgery website my life would be different. Maybe I would be “Tait, the knee surgeon”. Maybe I would own a mansion equipped with several trapdoors. Maybe my future children would refer to me as a ‘cool dad’ when they talk to their friends at high school. Maybe this will be me. But I need to dream big. I need to Innovate. I need to subscribe to blogs. I need to RSS the entire webernet. I will learn to adapt to this new internet life.
I don’t think I could live in the post-apocalyptic world. All those people living underground, trying their best to survive, scavenging for lemon peels and rat-meat. I’d rather die. You do know the poles are going to dramatically shift in December, 2012 right? You don’t? Eeeeeeeee. Sorry about that. It’s best not to think about it. It’s a little like The Game. Does anybody know The Game? Oh dear! The Game is nuts. Whether you know it or not, check out this crazy website. Some bananas reckon the world is going to lose the game on the 9th of September 2009. Anyway, the point is, learn the game, then remember to forget the poles are gonna shift. That’s what you do.
By the way, did you know the universe is expanding? Can you contextualise space? Everything outside our own universe is just a concept! There are no rules! How terrifying! How beautiful! Let’s take acid! We’ll forget where we are and the room will fill with smoke! Our minds will bend like time-space! Let me outta hereeeeeeeeeeee!
