Objectified

Humans are curious by nature, and we all want to understand and explore things that are new or strange to us. What makes the relationship between society and manufactured products unique is an intuitive interaction driven by our curious nature. But as a result, design can be an obsession, as we constantly analyse the attributes of everything around us. Our curious nature can also apply to the way designers are driven to understand the thought processes, the psychology that happens when we look at or use a product. The hidden world of design that influences virtually every aspect of our lives lies within ourselves, our perception of our own image, how we feel and how other people perceive us. It doesn't matter to other people because it is all about us.

Often, when we look at products and objects, we want to pick them up and understand how they work, by being a good design as Dieter Rams said "Good design should be innovative, useful, understandable, honest, unobtrusive, long-lived, consistent in every detail, environmentally friendly and require as little design as possible", it must be understandable, where one can pick up a product and use it, more-so based on intuition than learning through a manual or something similar. Linking to what was mentioned about our subconscious. By understanding the subconscious and thought processes, and addressing these; design can be understandable and useful, simply by being parallels with our intuition. Jonathan Ive also talks bout how when form develops with reason, that products almost feel undesigned. I think it was interesting that designers like Naoto Fukasawa have delved into a world made only of actions that human beings make subconsciously, without thought; looking at what people do, like fiddle with a phone or keys or stuff like that and designed towards these attributes.

Another interesting idea is the idea where we are buying products that express ourselves, in a way that other people would perceive you to be. Rob Walker - "..Good design is something that distinguishes you, it is sort of a mark of progress". But on the contrary there is a completely different side of the story, behind the image of good design is the driving force of the corporate world. Humans tend to want new things, things that can do something different, and we buy into that, simply because we are focusing on what is now and next because we want to belong, or in that sense, stand out; and by buying these products we can achieve that by changing what we perceive people to think about us. Fiona Ruby also refers to this, "you project yourself in the IKEA products and imagine it being in your home, you image yourself experiencing and enjoying that product" and again, these thoughts are based around your perception. This concept is really interesting because purchasing products is not about what you really think, but what you think other people think about you, and this is very selfish, but everyone thinks in the same way. And as designers, we have to understand that products have and image, and we like to show that image to other people.