We think open is better than closed — not because closed is inherently bad, but because when it’s easy for users to leave your product, there’s a sense of urgency to improve and innovate in order to keep your users. When your users are locked in, there’s a strong temptation to be complacent and focus less on making your product better.
A lot of changes since my last update on tumblr. The important one: since may 1st, I’m officially engaged. My father in law wasn’t so happy in the beggining but now everything it’s alright.
Disclaimer: my future wife doesn’t read my blog, and this announcement is something like a public ‘mental’ note. And since I asked her in twitter, why not file this moment here too?
Computers are ugly. People, by and large, hate hardware and software; it is bought and used out of basic needs, not passions. But clothes must be well designed. They have to be comfortable, intimate, functional, appealing. When computing becomes as basic as Jockey shorts, as sexy as lingerie, as cute as a Swatch, as durable as denim, as porous as Gore-Tex, as absorbent as Pampers, as fleet-footed as Nikes … and when all of the energy and thrill of the Internet is bubbling through your seams and pockets, when high tech and high fashion collide, the result will be a big change, not just skin-deep repackaging
— Professor Michael Hawley, MIT (via interaction-design.org)
It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people’s lives.
— Don Norman ( via @inspireux )
