Friction and inertia in industrial design

Abstract

‘Friction,’ says Nordal Åkerman, ‘is what keeps you from realizing your goals…. It constitutes the divide between dream and reality.’ The opening remarks of a paper by the American designer Jay Doblin, that he worked on the end of his life echoed something of that perception. He stated: ‘Designers are frequently frustrated by a recurring phenomenon: consumers who should know better often seem to choose products of inferior design.’¹ Yet although Doblin sought with great intelligence to analyse this phenomenon, he never explained it. There is as least a prima facie case for investigating the concepts of friction and inertia in the field of industrial design as a potential means of comprehending this gulf between aims and achievement that is so frequently left unexplored.