Functionality and Ease

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The “push” of industrial design seems to cross functionality with ease of use: the less effort a product requires from the user, the more functional it is. In my view, ease of use is one possible path to functionality. In the case of medical equipment, safety systems, weapons, or any other “mission-critical” devices that are meant to be used in highly stressful situations, ease of use is extremely important to functionality, and is contextually valid as well- precisely engineered, cutting-edge instruments are part of the medical and tactical schemas. In designing consumer products that will become familiar landmarks in the user’s life through daily use, such as chairs, teapots, or lamps, ease of use should be considered, but should not be a primary design goal. Like films that are easy to watch or music that is easy to listen to, a teapot that is above all easy to use would be profoundly boring and would have little contextual relevance to the act of preparing tea, which is more like a ritual than a “mission-critical” task. The goal of such products should be to guide the user in constructing a rich narrative related to its use, not rendering its use as cognitively invisible as possible.

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