Human-Product Communication - Emotional Engineering - page 19

12.3 Hardware Is Tangible
We have to be aware that hardware is physical and software is nonphysical. So
hardware deteriorates and has end of life, but software does not. Software may be
outdated, but it never deteriorates and does not have a physical end of life, although
their service life may expire. And what is more important is hardware is tangible.
Touching is a real-time communication. So it is directly related to experience.
And it is a direct means of human-product communication we have had for a long
time in history, before software was invented. Thus, as touching is direct com-
munication with the outer world or with the physical world, it facilitates us to
memorize experiences.
As described later, the fact that excellent mirror ! finishing of the outer case of
Apple iPod drove many people to select Apple among many choices demonstrates,
people feel attached to the product, if it holds good in their hands. Direct com-
munication provides the endowment effect in behavioral economics.
12.4 Change and Motion: The Essence of This World
Most of us are obsessed with the idea that mechanical products are machines, i.e.,
they move. Although such products as bottles, cans, clothes, etc. are not called
mechanical products, they are mechanical, in the sense that mechanics play an
important role in these products.
For example, to drink from a bottle, we have to grasp it and carry it to our mouth.
This involves motion. And if it is a can and it has a tab on top, we have to design how
a tab can be easily pulled out. This is mechanics. And how well we feel when we
wear clothes is also another problem of mechanics. Thus, all physical products are
more or less mechanical in this sense. And even static products, even a still picture is
also mechanical, because Stark [ 4 ] clari ! ed that our eyes are moving very quickly
around the boundaries of an object to identify what it is, although in the conventional
image processing edge detection does not relate to mechanics and from outsiders,
our eyes are focused on the object. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that all things on
earth are related to mechanics or it would be better to say they involve motion and
change. We have to remember the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “All
things are only transitory” and what German physicist, physician and philosopher
Hermann von Helmholtz pointed out in his speech “The Fact of Perception” [ 5 ] .
12.5 Motion and Emotion
As pointed out earlier, emotion is related with motivation and with motion or
action. It is of fundamental importance to recognize that motions are involved even