An argument against ergonomics

Image from nohomodern.com

There is an Eames Lounge that has taken up residence in my living room. It is not an original because the shock absorbing rings are plastic, yet it is not very new because wood is 5 plies thick, not 7. It is from the late 1960s-early '70s. It is upholsered with brown leather and this may be one of the reasons that it is a lot uglier than I had realized before.

I remember this chair from when I was a kid. It belonged to my grandparents, and was occupied by a life (human) size Snoopy doll. There was one in every therapist's office that I have ever been in. (There is something about modernist furniture that therapists love. Dr. S had a Joe Colombo Boby trolly in his office as well as an Aeron chair for himself and an Eames lounge for the patient. I think he had some sort of therapist discount at Design Within Reach. Every week when I sat in his lounge chair I would shift my body down so that my head rested on the top pillow and my feet could touch the floor. I never used the ottoman because I had shoes on and did not want to scratch the leather.)

The chair that is sitting next to me now is not comfortable. I realize that when I sit properly in the chair I have no headrest and only my toes touch the floor. My torso is very long, and causes a lot of trouble with furniture. Usually the trouble is only that I sit a lot taller than others, sometimes my head touches the ceiling of small cars though. I had thought that the Eames lounge chair was the epitome of comfort style and ergonomics. Now I know that this is a chair that for maybe 1/4 of the population has no neck support, and a good portion of people have a head rest, but dangling toes.

This chair is not a demonstration of the understanding of human factors. It is comfortable for the average body, and to me this is unacceptable.

Things that claim to provide comfort and support need sizes, like bras and shoes.

Otherwise they are uncomfortable for a good portion of the population. the next time I make something involving human factors I will think harder about this, knowing that it is not good enough to forget about range and focus only on the average.

The Postmodern Retrofit Kit

I found this image on flickr and thought that it would be fun to test out this kit on a few boring contemporary objects.

The IKEA salt and pepper shaker

My inhaler

The classic Honeywell thermostat

I think the thermostat was the biggest change. On a scale of Bauhaus to Archizoom it scores an 8.

The future of the past is cooler than the future of the present.

Think about it...

Future of the past

Future of the present

Form follows value systems

After extensive rambling in my sketchbook today, I came to the conclusion that designers are no longer focused on conveying a function through the form of a product. They are more concerned that the value system of the consumer matches the values conveyed by the designed object. Starting with the actual evaluation of the cost, manufacturing, environmental and social impact of the essential materials and function, a designer can choose the market segment which they choose to sell to. It would make sense that the design itself would convey the values that it is built upon, but this is not where the job of the designer ends. The value system must then be translated into the visual language of the form of the product. Consumers are attracted by reinterpretations of the signifiers which represent their values, not the values themselves. This is why objects are styled, rather than simply engineered.

A thought on the train

I was on the train today watching all of the commuters use their entertainment devices.

The man sitting next to me played air hockey on his iphone (4).
I contemplated the balance between optimal aesthetics and efficiency.

What would things look like if there were no such thing as beauty?

If I were more interested in my appearance would I have fashionable electronics?

If I had fashionable electronics with distracting games would I ever have asked these questions, or would I have been too distracted to think?