The balance between aesthetics and usefulness has always been a hot topic. My perspective on beauty and productivity is that if something does its job well, that is enough. I used to value productivity more than aesthetics. According to the reading, for a product to be truly beautiful, it “has to fulfill a useful function, work well, and be usable and understandable” (p. 7). I agree with this idea because if a product does not serve its intended purpose, it fails to justify its existence.
However, in reality, this is not always the case. Take Apple, for example. People love Apple products because they are well-designed and undeniably beautiful. Yet, in terms of productivity, they may not always be the most practical option. MacBooks, for instance, perform most of the functions that a laptop should, but they lack a USB port. While users can buy external hubs, many find it inconvenient and would prefer at least one built-in port. Despite this, people continue to buy MacBooks. The success of Apple’s stock market performance suggests that many consumers value aesthetics just as much as, or even more than, productivity.
The next reading, about the code that helped send people to the moon, reminded me of the importance of checking and rechecking every detail. It shows why it is essential to anticipate every possible error, even those that seem unlikely or unnecessary. Launching the P01 program midflight might have seemed like a situation that would never occur, but it did. If Lauren had not accounted for this scenario, the outcome for Jim Lovell and the mission could have been very different.