Assignment 002

Think about what goes on in your head when you buy something new, take a photo of your favourite designed object and answer the following questions:

• Why is it that we want our belongings to do more for us than to function well?

• Why are we willing, as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for things with appealing forms?

When buying something new, the first thing that comes to mind is how good it looks. But the question is – ‘How do designers make objects look good?’ Let’s take Apple’s iPod as an example. Why is it so successful and why do we like them? Personally, I think the reason we like iPods is because their shiny! The objects we find pleasing are the objects that reflect light well. It doesn’t matter what shape or material it is, as long as it reflects light, we love it! A good example of this theory in action is diamonds. Diamonds are rocks that reflect the light well. If diamonds didn’t reflect light well it wouldn’t be as appealing therefore you wouldn’t buy it. However, there are other reasons that we want our belongings to do more than just function well.

If you’re buying anything from the latest mp3 player to a new pair of shoes, we can look at how it could improve our appearance, our social status or how it could make us more appealing to others. These are all factors that play a part in buying something new. A good example of this would be label or logo recognition. With many young people today, labels play a big part in their social status and the way the make themselves more appealing to others. Occasionally when buying a new object we are ashamed to own something which could be considered ugly or unattractive by the people we respect the most. Objects that have labels or logos on them can be expensive and there could be a cheaper alternative but, with the fact that ‘fitting in’ plays a part in our decision making many people would buy the more expensive object.

We are willing to pay extra for things with appealing forms because of two reasons. The first reason is lasting appeal. We all like to buy new object and know that in a few months, if not years time be able to say that the object still appeals to you. The second reason for paying extra for thing is lasting value. Why should people buy a cheap old iPod that only has 1GB of memory when you could buy newer iPod with 16GB of memory? People should be buying the ‘best of the best’ when it comes to certain objects because then it will last longer and you will be able to get more use out of it.