The DVD tray thing is amusing. I know lots of people that bought their CD or DVD player based on the eject mechanism. I interviewed Paul Priestman a while back and we talked about this. He said that these ‘feelings’ of quality don’t have to be expensive at all and that the damper for that eject mechanism probably costs a couple of cents. It’s really just inattentive design when those things are overlooked. I should fish out that interview and put it online actually – he is an interesting guy.

Remember the Nakamichi tapedeck that used to push the casette out and flip it over? I always wanted one of those. They still go for several hundred dollars on eBay.

One comment I have though, as a dancer (recreational, not professional), is that people always reference choreography as a practice that has a notation for movement. My experience is that this is not true – dance has the same documentation issues that we do as designers. There are names for certain positions and movements, but writing them down in sequence does NOT convey choreography, and is usually far too cumbersome to be worth anything. The choreographers I know sketch and document just like we should – with video.