A couple of recent Core77 articles of interest to the design research crowd - one about the flexible and unexpected ways that people utilize products in everyday life, and the other about the flexible material that goes into making so many everyday products:
- Parallel Universes: Making Do and Getting By + Thoughtless Acts - Kevin Henry discusses Jane Fulton Suri's Thoughtless Acts and Richard Wentworth's Making Do and Getting By - both photographic examples of how people take advantage of the (often) unintended behaviors afforded by designed objects. For example, using a bottle cap as an ashtray or a pencil as a lock. Such examples not only illustrate human ingenuity with found objects, but the limitations and opportunities for intentional design.
- Not Created Equal:A Long, (Loving) Plastics Primer - Carl Alviani provides a brief history and taxonomy of popular plastics used in modern products. As someone who entered product design from the research world, and not an expert on materials and engineering, this is very valuable background.
