Saturday, November 26, 2011

Is Technology Too Design Focused?

Certainly one of the defining aspects of developments in devices is actually not engineering advances but design. Whilst you can argue that technology and design improvements move together, it is additionally easy to see precisely how design dominates buyer behavior. This has actually been the case for a long time since mass-production allowed manufacturers to offer cheap products where the onus was on design rather than functionality. Case in point, the paper dresses of the 1960s were cheap and arguably of a poor quality still for some fashion conscience consumers they were must have wardrobe items.

This carries on today. Phone builders continually push and pull on the dichotomy of functionality vs design. Lots of manufacturers choose simple designs and instead rely on feature development. Others yet choose to provide less features but instead focus on design, sometimes working with singers.

With such a attention given to design instead of usability, it is easy to think of technology products simply as aesthetic but it is important to remember that such devices should have helpful benefits as well. When you are picking a product there tends to be three different aspects that you need to weigh up - design, features and cost. At times you might wish to spend more on design or features. Other times they get incorporated together. Apple's design ethos is a great example of design converging with technology.

If you always go for the design element when buying new products then you should start to consider the functional aspect too. While it is often be tempting to get the coolest designed product, it may not be the smartest. You ought to always look at the functionality of the device and how you will be using it. There is little point of getting a really flash computer if all you do is send emails or surf the web.

Thus, when buying new products, always think about how you will use it or why you need it. An example of this is e-book readers (such as the Amazon Kindle). They have practical uses in real life as well. For instance, a lot of airlines are now limiting passengers to a single piece of luggage. An e-book reader is much smaller than the average book and you are able to take more books with you when you go on holiday than you might otherwise be able to.

Phones are a good example of improved technology features. You can use your phone for all your multi-media needs. Many now have large amounts of memory enabling you to save videos, pictures and music. Lots of cell phones now have decent digital cameras too, meaning you don't need to splash out on a separate, pricey camera. The Internet is no different. Plenty of websites have been designed with functionality and usability as the focus. You are able to use sites which have been made to allow you to organize your Internet time more effectively. They range from a bookmarking service, password manager and personalized homepage...

A passwords manager can save you time and can transform your work process. Sadly, a lot of them have a more basic design and feel. It will be interesting to see how they evolve over time as more people expect good functionality that is displayed in a well designed product.