Metaphors shape how we think, and they help us imagine the future.
My claim is that, with networked products, the old metaphor for computers is no longer appropriate. We need to find new, deep, stories to tell.
We do have alternatives.
One is the trope of product design. The dominant trope of product design is embodied in this, Apple. These beautiful, functional, easy machines. In hardware, it looks like this. In software, like skeuomorphism -- the design trope that introduced smartphones to the world.
I love Apple products -- when I use Apple's products, I feel like we live in a golden age of technology.
But I was reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, and there's a quote from Jonathan Ive - responsible for design at Apple - and it caught my eye.
Matt Webb, Web Directions South 2014 (Sydney, Australia), October 2014