Bioscleave House – Thinking out of the box
April 4th, 2008
The bioscleave house, is a house which keeps its inhabitants young, because it forces them to constantly exercise their bodies and minds.
The floors of the house are totally uneven, and even the simplest things, like power outlets, have been built in unconvential, inventive ways.
Of course, to make their point, they went as far with their concept as they could. Maybe even a little bit too far: ‘what’s revolutionary about the house is exactly what makes it totally impractical’.
Yet, I think this is a really refreshing idea. A less extreme example, is probably the MBT footwear, which is also designed to stimulate the body rather than to dumb it down.
What does this have to do with usability, and the other stuff on this blog, you ask?
Well, I really think, that there has not been made much progress with desktop computing in the past decade. We still got this strange combination of keyboard, mouse and computer screen on our desks.
Often, when I look at them, I think: ‘what a mess’. These devices do not really seem to belong together.
Yet, I understand, even the simplest things like getting rid of the useless Num-Lock button and the Caps-Lock key can not be done anymore, because of the tremendous cost of getting billions of people accustomed to such an uncomfortable change.
I am asking, is desktop computng still an area, where people are actively searching for new ideas? Is there still a place for ideas which may require us to get out of our seemingly comfortable but inert world?
Or is the future taking place elsewhere now. For example in mobile computing?