I’ve been toying lately with the idea of humanised products & objects. As we move forward & in light of the changes I’ve experienced in the world of design over the past 2 years since starting this blog, I think it’s fair to say consumers are becoming more informed. This is prevalent in the boom of makers fairs & people caring about where products come from i.e. how they were made & where materials come from. Essentially this is nothing new & stems from the ideal of ‘looking back to look forward’…Slow food movement…Small run products etc. People are looking for real value in things far beyond functionality, they are expecting products & objects to tell stories & justify their time & place.
This got me to thinking…the approach now is for sustainability, used more renewable materials which mean waste is less of an issue when it’s finished with. Additionally, the need form longevity of products also has an importance into things basically lasting longer.
If we talk about ‘Humanised’ products & services surely we should be looking into the idea of how we act to our world throughout life stages? Instead of a product that is at the peak of it’s value when opened from it’s box & is losing value from that period forward, think of the idea of our own childhood where we get better & more knowledgeable the older we get. Imagine, products that get better with age & more valuable over time. I’m not talking traditional antiques which is about the rarer the object the more valuable & is very isolated to the object itself, our own development is based on the foundation of interaction & support & could be applicable to the object world too. No longer designed obsolescence but with the aim of growing with use over time…Maybe I’ll sketch it out further to explain…