Pictures and Words
If "a picture is worth a thousand words", consider the worth, in words, of a product. Are the products in your house talking? What are they saying?
The metaphor of language in product form is not new. Richard Buchanan established the notion of design as rhetoric; a product does not only speak but in fact attempts to convince; a designer makes an argument that comes alive each time a person considers their creation. We can not help but persuade, and technology is often used as smoke and mirrors to insert an empty dialogue. Form, material and function are combined to create a cohesive argument.
Shelley Evenson, along with John Rheinfrank - arguably the father of Interaction Design, as defined in this text - introduced the idea of a visual and functional language of communication with the people who use an artifact. People do not simply use our product form language; we live with it. It is the basis for how we generate and interpret our surroundings.
These definitions refer to the physical form, material and vision of an artifact. Do the products that offer a convergent view of design speak a new language? It seems that some of us - typically younger - are encouraged by the new words; to push the metaphor even farther, we can create slang, misuse words, or even invent new terms and references. The interaction designer shapes culture through the creation of a new language.
A product speaks, and the language - and content - is at the control of the interaction designer. Once a product has been created, it calls to us from the shelf; advertising turns the volume up to a scream, and of course, this seems inappropriate; while this brute force "technique" may sell used cars, the more intellectual approach - a conversation - may be what moves a product from a shelf in Target into our home. Once in our home, a product has a dialogue with us - the "users" - and with the rest of the house. Your house is alive, and each item is speaking. Are they talking to each other? Are they debating? Or are they simply trying to drown each other out, speaking louder and louder but never coming to any relevant resolution?