The demise of “form follows function”

Regarding the design of digital products, form doesn’t follow function anymore.

Thanks to digital technology, designers can squeeze so many functions into such tiny containers that there is more computing power in a basic cellphone (not a fancy model, like a BlackBerry or iPhone, just a cheap one) than at NASA’s headquarters when it began in 1958. That is why the appearance of most digital products bears no relation to what they do.

I’ve heard this idea expressed before, specifically about the iPhone, but I can’t remember where. Maybe it was Rawsthorn herself in Objectified?

• Alice Rawsthorn
• design
• iPhone