Form VS Function

[v-600]

3,2,1 Discuss!

I have an elephant shaped bottle opener. Its hand made from a piece of aluminium. I bought it because it looked cool. I tried to open a bottle of beer and found that the cap gouged marks in the aluminium. All told as a bottle opener its pretty crap.

I've also got a cheap bottle opener from a supermarket. Its got a plastic handle, wasn't hand made, cost less and opens bottles. Its better. Guess which one will be on my table for friends to see and use and not talk about because it looks ordinary but works well.

On a different theme my nexus 4 has a glass back and thin form factor. I think it would be a better phone if it was 50% thicker and had a larger battery, and had a nice malleable plastic shell. It wouldn't look as good but would work better.

Obviously not everyone will agree, makers of phones and elephant bottle openers spring to mind straight away.

So where do you all come on the form-function spectrum. Does function lead necessarily to good form? Can something work well if it has poor form? Is part of somethings function to have good form to it?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's not "form versus function," it's form follows function. Design is a completely separate approach all too often.

 

[Rebel_L]

I usually find beauty in very functional designs, yet looking at the consumer space and seeing how less functional items often become more popular than their less elegant and more functional counterparts I think I am in the minority on this.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I usually find beauty in very functional designs, yet looking at the consumer space and seeing how less functional items often become more popular than their less elegant and more functional counterparts I think I am in the minority on this.

I'm with you but, advertisers are very good at manipulating the average lazy consumer. In addition, many products are too complex to be objectively evaluated by the average consumer.

 

[Rebel_L]

Thinking about it more, I suppose in the end form is really just another function, just not one that I value as much as others. It just seems to be a function that advertising seems particularly targeted towards. We all consider the functions most valuable to ourselves as the primary criteria. Form at least partially has the function to determine how others view us making it very important to some people. Image is economically important to several career paths I can think of not to mention the boost to self esteem from being viewed as part of a "elite" group by the rest of society.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Thinking about it more, I suppose in the end form is really just another function, just not one that I value as much as others. It just seems to be a function that advertising seems particularly targeted towards. We all consider the functions most valuable to ourselves as the primary criteria. Form at least partially has the function to determine how others view us making it very important to some people. Image is economically important to several career paths I can think of not to mention the boost to self esteem from being viewed as part of a "elite" group by the rest of society.

I think that is incorrect. A function has an intrinsic value while form is subject to time and fashion. While image is important to many people and, may even be a critical factor in their thinking, it is not a function.

 

[Rebel_L]

I think that is incorrect. A function has an intrinsic value while form is subject to time and fashion. While image is important to many people and, may even be a critical factor in their thinking, it is not a function.

If all bottles switch over to screw caps will a bottle opener still have an intrinsic value? We obsolete functions of our devices all the time as we advance in technology and make older technologies not only obsolete but in some cases unusable as we get rid of the infrastructure required to use the devices.

The image function of a device is not one that is easy to design for and usually becomes obsolete or even reverses in function regularly so I understand why you want to put that in a separate category when talking about the designing of a device.

On the consumer end though if the person buying asks himself "what does this device do for me" any image related components are still valid to consider. They are not stable long term component, but then I think the people who bought beta max and HD DVD would argue that other functions can also be obsoleted in short order.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

If all bottles switch over to screw caps will a bottle opener still have an intrinsic value? We obsolete functions of our devices all the time as we advance in technology and make older technologies not only obsolete but in some cases unusable as we get rid of the infrastructure required to use the devices.

The image function of a device is not one that is easy to design for and usually becomes obsolete or even reverses in function regularly so I understand why you want to put that in a separate category when talking about the designing of a device.

On the consumer end though if the person buying asks himself "what does this device do for me" any image related components are still valid to consider. They are not stable long term component, but then I think the people who bought beta max and HD DVD would argue that other functions can also be obsoleted in short order.

I understand what you're saying but, the example used doesn't hold up because there will always be bottles from before the change that will need to be opened. the basic function, opening a bottle has not changed just the tool used to do it. You are correct that tools become obsolete over time but, the function and, it's intrinsic value remain the same.

 

[Rebel_L]

I understand what you're saying but, the example used doesn't hold up because there will always be bottles from before the change that will need to be opened. the basic function, opening a bottle has not changed just the tool used to do it. You are correct that tools become obsolete over time but, the function and, it's intrinsic value remain the same.

It is a bad example only due to bottle caps not going away any time soon, but once we stop making bottles with caps we will eventually run out of caps to open, if there is not bottle with cap requiring a bottle opener what intrinsic value is left in the tool? If you would like a different example, an old rotary phone can no longer be used to dial numbers with our current phone lines, what is the intrinsic value of the function of an item if it can no longer serve that function for me? Is it not time locked just like image function of items? The time lock for image functions is just usually shorter and the value not so easy to quantify, but why should that disqualify it as a valid function of said item?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It is a bad example only due to bottle caps not going away any time soon, but once we stop making bottles with caps we will eventually run out of caps to open, if there is not bottle with cap requiring a bottle opener what intrinsic value is left in the tool? If you would like a different example, an old rotary phone can no longer be used to dial numbers with our current phone lines, what is the intrinsic value of the function of an item if it can no longer serve that function for me? Is it not time locked just like image function of items? The time lock for image functions is just usually shorter and the value not so easy to quantify, but why should that disqualify it as a valid function of said item?

You're still mistaking the tool for the function of the tool. "The map is not the territory."

 

[Rebel_L]

You're still mistaking the tool for the function of the tool. "The map is not the territory."

The only intrinsic value of the tool itself is the materials its made from, all other value is a product of its functions, and is not intrinsic but subjective to the value of those functions to the person who posses it.