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Why parts do not exist and wholes are not ensembles

Products we design are a reflection of how we mentally process the world.

Onur Yuce Gun, PhD
UX Collective

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

On a Saturday morning, I am moving my gaze over the things on my desk. I am looking at the notes I took on a small notebook.

The notebook is made of pages. The mug has a handle.

Then there is a pen. It has too many parts including a spring inside. Somebody decided that that would be the best way to make a pen, and so the spring remained there.

The laptop? Looks simpler on the outside, even with so many keys. Inside? Too early to think about the circuits on a motherboard. I move my gaze to the guitar on the wall:

Why are there frets on a guitar? And why are there fretless guitars?

Because we want to flow. Because life is in flux.

Part descriptions remain valid momentarily in the flux of life

Products we design are a reflection of how we mentally process the world. For ages, we have been looking around, making observations and coming up with descriptions and names for the things we see.

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