I just bought a new laptop. This is no small feat, because I've been thinking about the purchase for at least a year now (I bought a new desktop in June instead). There's been a lot of internal (and external) debate about features and benefits and functionality. About Arrandale processors and how many gigs of RAM one needs. About portability.
I just finished reading Jonah Lehrer's second book, How We Decide. In it, Lehrer makes an interesting point about purchasing decisions - that when we try and give our prefrontal cortices - our rational centers - too many variables to consider, our brains get overwhelmed and they give up. Our emotional brains have strong reactions to things, and when we're asked to make complicated decisions (like, buying laptops), we really should listen to what our amygdalas are telling us.
Tim Brown once said, "As a designer I ply my craft in the turbulent waters between the complex things we create and the human beings they are intended to serve." Our rational brains are really good at analyzing the complexity of objects that we have, but they are poor predictors of how usable they're going to be in our lives. That's a good challenge for designers to keep in mind - to help people bridge the gap between functionality and usability. Function is rational. Usability is emotional.
A month ago, during Snowpocalypse-turned-Icepocalypse in Atlanta, I impulse-bought the laptop that I should have bought nine months ago. In the month that I've had it, it's barely left my side - from Breckenridge to El Paso to Baltimore and back.
And you know what? It's the best laptop I've ever owned.
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| Sawra approves of the new laptop (feel free to use with credit) |
Tim Brown once said, "As a designer I ply my craft in the turbulent waters between the complex things we create and the human beings they are intended to serve." Our rational brains are really good at analyzing the complexity of objects that we have, but they are poor predictors of how usable they're going to be in our lives. That's a good challenge for designers to keep in mind - to help people bridge the gap between functionality and usability. Function is rational. Usability is emotional.
A month ago, during Snowpocalypse-turned-Icepocalypse in Atlanta, I impulse-bought the laptop that I should have bought nine months ago. In the month that I've had it, it's barely left my side - from Breckenridge to El Paso to Baltimore and back.
And you know what? It's the best laptop I've ever owned.
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