Attractive Design
I found the example of the three teapots particularly interesting because it shows how different designs serve different purposes. The author describes one of the teapots as being deliberately unusable, the other more aesthetically pleasing, and the last one being practical and well thought out. Yet, he uses all of them at different times, proving that design is situational. This made me reflect on my own experiences, there are times when I am most liekly to prioritize efficiency, but other times I would like to appreciate beauty or novelty in design. Essentially, it’s not about a single “best” design but rather the right design for the right moment.
Her Code Got Humans on the Moon
Reading about Margaret Hamilton’s contributions really gave me a new perspective on software design and reliability. I had never thought about how early software engineering had to account for human error in such high-stakes environments. This made me think about how much of today’s UI/UX design is centered around the same kind of principles and ideas Hamilton had. In interactive systems, we rely on clear, intuitive design to prevent mistakes, just like the Apollo software had to ensure astronauts couldn’t accidentally erase critical data. Her work really highlighted the idea that good software isn’t just about writing code but also about anticipating how users will interact with it and designing systems that are both strong and intuitive to use.