Article Idea:

Human Factors of nonobjects

suggested by Rob Tannen on 2007/11/06

There’s a lot of buzz about Branko Lucic’s forthcoming design fiction book on “nonobjects”. It’s a conceptual excercise on a new way to design products. I’ve taken it to the next level by looking at the usability of those conceptual objects, both as a thought excercise, but also to see if there is value in the outputs of this non-traditional design process.

Benjamin Ho's avatar

Benjamin Ho

2 Reputation points

Posted 2007/11/06 @ 08:05AM with

This would be quite interesting. I’ve always had the idea that design can be about output that’s not really tangible.

Putcha V. Narasimham's avatar

Putcha V. Narasimham

1 Reputation points

Posted 2007/11/17 @ 22:14PM with

Nonobject stirred my interest instantly. I am an Information Technology professional working on Object Oriented Methodologies using UML 2. I find that excessive focus on “Objects” interferes with conceptualization and abstraction of “Notional Things” that cannot have shape and mass (or attributes and operations) but are very potent and essential for designing software (and other things too).

“Non” is a prefix I have been using privately. I would like to acknowledge the original author of “Nonobject” in my documents where I use “nonobjec for objects which have dispersed indefinite attributes and operations”, “non-use-case for use cases which prevent users from doing anything objectionable / undesirable (in contrast to use-cases that enable valid users or actors to do something specific)” “nonuser or mis-user for any unauthorized user or a hacker who may misuse or subvert the software”.

John Ferrara's avatar

John Ferrara

85 Reputation points

Posted 2008/06/04 @ 08:00AM with

Lukic’s book seems like it’s geared very much toward aesthetics; his concepts strike me as gleefully nonutilitarian. I’d be very interested to know if there’s a functional angle to the nonobjects idea that could inspire design for use. Intangibles are unquestionably a part of a product’s experience, but can they be a part of its purpose too?

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