But here i'm speaking about material, the kind of extra that you are looking for in everyday "stuff", by material i mean feelings, i mean emotions i mean pleasure, and this pleasure can be an easy one, take this iphone for example, it's been following me forever , in my pocket, in my bag, on my desk, falling , again and again, directly in contact with my keys , my pocket crap ,in contact with my life basically .
Every marks every deformation, every moment is engraved in this phone forever , and this is what i mean by "I'm a materialist" i just loved this phone beyond the interaction, beyond the updates i couldn't make anymore since the hardware was obsolete, this material" aluminum" kept me from replacing it with another piece of plastic junk(read iphone 2 or 3).
On top of this material patina pleasure i have to say that this phone went through hell , literally, he survived multiple crash , multiple abuse to finally die from water immersion ( i will pass the details here as this is a ridiculous story involving water, summer and booze )
And i'm pretty sure that the use of such a material has been helping the survival process of this product.
I heard that the iphone 5 might be made out of aluminum again and this is making me really happy, so i cross my fingers and i will wait, but i would never buy another product without thinking of the patina it could eventually gain after years of usage .
To all my peers industrial designers, the ultimate quest for green design might not be in the obvious, sustainable, recyclable or perishable materials but designing for long term usage might be smarter .
I would say sturdy,stable and upgradable is the key for tommorow's products.( pretty obvious but i wanted to place it here)
So long folks,i'm going to find a spot to show off my phone in my house,after all he's still carrying lots of things beyong data on him.
Ben
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