Have you ever looked at an object and found it so uncomfortable that you wanted to touch it? This might be most familiar in high fashion, but in many areas of design that feeling of surprise-revulsion can be a source of inspiration. Today's example: Rock Set by Arkadiusz Szwed, a Polish ceramicist and designer whose simple porcelain drinkware makes me feel both anxious and intrigued. 

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Using both hand-building techniques and casting gives the Rock Set an organic form with a prim and glossy finish. The glasses look like barnacles, the jug looks slippery and difficult to hold, and I have skeptical feelings about how you'd clean it. But between the odd angles, uncertainty about the heft, and thoughts about how it would feel in other materials... I'd love to get my hands on it anyway.

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Some features of good haptics can be streamlined on a meta level (it helps if you have the budget and scientific wherewithal of an Apple team or the corporation formerly known as Google X), but some things can't. 

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That it factor that makes your hand "want" to touch something is pretty subjective, and has a lot to do with a lot of small personal associations we bank up over years. And our assumptions about a feature's latent value can creep in alongside, even when user feedback is mixed or production options aren't heavily constrained. (Does a lightweight spoon feel cheap? How many fingers should a mug handle fit?) 

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Ceramics, as a material and a field, can be an excellent source of tactile and haptic inspiration, particularly given its incredibly long history of use, and its mind-blowingly versatile range of applications. Its basis in chemistry along with its susceptibility to natural variation make it a regular host for surprising texture and detail, whether you're looking at royal tea sets, outsider art, or precision aerospace components. 

Working with design thinking can often leave a thinker more practiced in problem-solving critique than critical creativity. But a quick dip in the light discomforts of DIY, fine art, and wabi sabi design can sometimes refresh your fun sensors. 

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Szwed's ungainly yet elegant jugs and lumpy yet well-matched glasses were a nice reminder that satisfying product design isn't all pragmatism and minimal lines. When I find myself grumbling Why on earth is it like that? it's often just as interesting to follow with Why should it be?