Two 'Other' Articles About Social Objects

I thought I’d really hit PAY DIRT with this one entitled: The Consensual Definition of Social Objects. I mean, someone got consensus on that? Then I want to know what it is! (and let Smith and Searle in on it too).Ms Garretson must have been DECADES before her time!Haha.

I found an interesting article by Donald Norman entitled Sociable Design. He is the author of “The Design of Everyday Things,” “Emotional Design,” and “The Design of Future Things.” He lives at www.jnd.org.

While not about social objects in the theoretical or abstract so much, it’s definitely informative about concrete ‘social objects’ and their design. The last sentence of this quote intrigued me:

“Design of both machines and services should be thought of as a social activity,one where there is much concern paid to the social nature of the interaction. All products have a social component. This is especially true of communication products, whether websites, personal digests (blog), audio and video postings mean to be shared, or mail digests, mailing lists, and text messaging on cellphones. Social networks are by definition social. But where the social impact is obvious, designers are forewarned. The interesting cases happen where the social side is not so obvious.”