A passing comment in a FutureLab post earlier this year about “creating emotional attachments to digital objects” at least feints in the direction of trying to apply wear-and-tear appeal to the tech realm:
One idea that a colleague mentioned to me involved the notion of “dynamic weathering” of applications — the more that you use an app, the more that it would appear “weathered” and used. People would know how often you were reading by how “worn” your iPad’s screen looked, for example.
Well, maybe. It’s too bad the idea is not pursued any further; this stray thought sounds more like a potential art project than a consumer strategy.
But I like the notion just the same, since it obviously gets at a crucial crossroads: Something designed to be lived with vs. something designed to be replaced. This is not solely a matter for the profession; product-users (or consumers, if you like) have a major say, simply by virtue of the way we value what we use. It’s amusing to imagine a demand for the gadget equivalent of “distressed” denim or “antiqued” furniture. For now though, I think visible traces of long and heavy use signal, “Time for a new one.”
via YMFY and here
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