Title: 11 Movements to Replace Common Things
Context: Designers are problem solvers. We sometimes even solve problems that don’t really exist.
Synopsis: Don’t you hate calendars? And fire hydrants? And door knobs? And child proof pill bottles? Especially child proof pill bottles. In the history of humankind we have very often settled for a design solution simply because “that’s the way it’s always been.” Stop signs? Do they suck? Who knows? They probably do but they work just well enough for nobody to bother trying to make them better. Well almost nobody. The worth of design is measured in its impact on the lives of the people it touches. Unfortunately we often accept a quantitative measure of this impact rather than a qualitative one. Tradition and familiarity are the enemies of innovation, rebel accordingly.
Best Bit: “During the design of Disneyland, nobody could agree on where certain sidewalks should be paved. The Imagineers decided to let the public vote with their feet—literally. Grass was planted, and where the park’s guests trafficked most frequently, footpaths became evident. That’s where the sidewalks went. In urban planning, such trails are called ‘desire paths.’”
via mentalfloss.com
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