"Objectified"

There's a scene in Objectified where a father is playing around with an iPhone in an Apple Store while his young child is sitting upon his shoulders with her hands over his eyes. Normally, you would think that someone who is experimenting with--and presumably, thinking of purchasing--a sleek piece of (expensive) technology would not want the distraction of a two year-old mounted on their face playing playing peek-a-boo. But strangely, the father looks content and confident operating the iPhone with one hand while steadying the rambunctious youth with the other. No big deal; this is 2009. One hand is performing one task, and the other is performing potentially thousands of tasks.

This scene is a prime example of the affordances of good design: daily life dissolves into the use of the product. We can all operate a cell phone while sitting in a chair or walking down the street, but what about situations where we don't want to acknowledge a product but yet still expect it to perform its function seamlessly? These are the questions that Objectified tackles from a variety of angles and from a number of different expert perspectives. It's highly worth watching if you're interested in how every single object in your living room is reacting to you, or how every device you put into your pockets and briefcases in the morning is shaping the way you live.