Donald Norman's favorite gadgets

Donald Norman, the ne plus ultra of cranky design critics (and author of the stupendous, life-changing books Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design) has a page of his favorite best-designed household objects. There's some real drool-worthy gizmos here, from a rolling suitcase with a built-in baby seat to the best stapler in the universe.

Who would have thought it — a better stapler. This is a great example of how even the most mundane, commonplace commodity can be improved. Staplers look pretty simple and their design has not changed much, until now. Many's the time I have had to redo a staple, pulling out the original, bad staple, and trying to do it right: push straight down, hard — but neither too slow nor too fast. Bah.

PaperPro completely rethought the operation. On the outside, the stapler looks just like the old-fashioned kind, but try it once and be convinced forever. Pushing down on the top cocks a spring. Then, the spring releases — bam! — all the energy at once, and the staple shoots into the paper. Effortless. And in my many uses, never a single failure. And I staple a lot, especially as I crank out draft chapter after draft chapter. My stapler says it can do up to 25 pages, but in actuality, it does a lot more.

Link

(via Beyond the Beyond)