Ben Terrett, part of the "post digital" Really Interesting Group and part-instigator of the alchemical Things Our Friends Have Written On The Internet 2008 newspaper, calls for "more ideas, less stuff" in a Guardian column this week. While I'm not sure that a £400 Howies jacket is the best antidote to conspicuous consumption, the idea that commonplace objects should be considerately designed to satisfy the user and function smoothly over a long lifespan is as sound as it's ever been*.
Perhaps more interesting still is Terrett's collaborator Russell Davies' nascent ideas about how the physical world might interface with the digital in the very near future. Most of the technology he talks about is already out there; all we need to do is think about how we might join the dots.
* Donald Norman's The Design Of Everyday Things, first published in 1988, is the best-known usability primer for a reason, and is a good read for anybody who finds themselves frequently pushing doors that need to be pulled, or vice versa, or the kicking thereof.
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