Death throes of relevancy

The design exploration (aka masturbation) "Out of the Box" that was done under the aegis of Samsung was supposed to result in a "simple yet effective solution for cell phone users who have difficulties learning to use their handset." 

Any instructional designer working under today's conditions will immediately identify the problems with the proposed solution. But let me start you out with just one -- there is no product box into which this book would fit, and the expense of producing packaging to accomodate it would exceed the costs associated with those confused customers (assuming they actually exist in quantity).

I don't have a lot of respect for Samsung, but even I have to admit they probably got a very big chuckle (after the eye-rolling stopped) at this design.

Before you accuse me of taking a never-meant-to-be-serious design project to task, consider what this says about the future and appeal of printed documentation: It is for the inept and simple-minded, and must be digitally-supplemented to be useful. That's just a split-hair from completely anachronistic.

Posted: December 31, 2014 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item