Categories: MEX NotesOpinions, ideas and new thinkingPathway #13: Quiet design

MEX Notes: Silence by Tadao Ando and Blair Associates (Dezeen)

  • Silence by Tadao Ando and Blair Associates (Dezeen) – In a world where an ever growing number of digital interfaces shout for our attention, what is the role of quiet design? This piece of London street furniture serves no purpose but the aesthetic, unless perhaps to mark the passing of time as a silent, ephemeral clock. However, for those who walk past it each day, it will no doubt inspire emotion and, for many, enhance their stroll. Are these not the ingredients of good experience? The lessons of quiet design are becoming more and more relevant to digital interface designers, both within individual devices and especially when the interface is distributed across multiple touchpoints. Recent concept work by BERG has explored some interesting possibilities in this area, while users of Nokia's Symbian 3 devices can try a practical example with the beta release of 'Sleeping Screen'. Look for a future MEX Pathway on this theme.
Marek Pawlowski

Marek Pawlowski is the founder of MEX. Since 1995, he has focused the MEX business on helping digital industries to develop better, more profitable products through improved understanding of user behaviour with mobile devices and wireless networks. MEX is best known for its events, research and consulting, which balance commercial, technical and user insights to define the future of mobile user experience.

Leave a Comment
Share
Published by
Marek Pawlowski
15 years ago

Recent Posts

Design Talk 80. Digitally sustainable; Mirren Fischer, Founder, Brilliant Product Design

Mirren Fischer is someone who finds herself at the confluence of some really big challenges:…

5 years ago

Design Talk 79. Our future towns; Dan Phillips, Royal College of Art

Poetry and place...listening and lockdowns... Dan Phillips, who led the Royal College of Art's (RCA)…

5 years ago

Design Talk 78. Mark Baldino, co-founder, Fuzzy Math

Mark Baldino's path to co-founding a Chicago-based design agency wends its way from a degree…

5 years ago

Design Talk 77. Paul Campbell, Chief Product Officer, Centaur Robotics

Paul Campbell, a former chief designer at Ford, is now re-imagining the wheelchair at Centaur…

6 years ago

Interaction unintended

Opening the oven released a cloud of steam. I should have been expecting it. It's…

6 years ago

Design Talk 76. Placeful computing; Jared Ficklin, Chief Creative Technologist & founding partner, argodesign

Jared Ficklin's approach of 'think by making' has led him to produce remarkable digital design…

6 years ago