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The 'Aspirin Point': Micro-Ergonomics, Anyone?

By Rain Noe - December 17, 2012

in Object Culture

It'll be a while yet before full-blown computers get there, but storage devices are finally starting to hit what I'll call the "aspirin point."

I still remember being in a class taught by Karim Rashid at Pratt, where he was talking about immateriality and objects essentially disappearing. (This was in the early '90s, and this naive college junior thought he was crazy; turns out he wasn't.) He pointed out that the active ingredient in an aspirin pill was so miniscule that no one would be able to physically handle it, so 90-something percent of it was just powder, to give the thing enough mass for us to pick up and pop in our mouths. One day, he said, technological objects would have this same issue.

I was reminded of this by seeing this ridiculously small USB flash drive, which barely seems big enough to get two fingers on. Elecom's been selling the things in Japan, a nation crazy about miniaturization, in both 16GB and 32GB capacities.

In any case, the point Rashid was making that day was that once the object essentially disappears, designers would have to focus on designing the experience of using it, rather than the form of the thing itself. I'm not seeing that here with Elecom's device; I want a little more context, like where this thing goes when you're not using it. Aspirin comes in a bottle, and I'd like to see something like this incorporated into a ring or something always on hand. Because while I love that they've gotten it this small, I know for sure I'd lose the thing.

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Tim P

11 years ago

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I agree with the other commenters that this looks like it's designed largely to stay plugged into the computer.
Especially because it looks like it matches the L-shaped MagSafe connectors pretty closely. On a MacBook where the USB port is adjacent to the MagSafe, it'd form a continuous bump.
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Dave Houlbrooke

11 years ago

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I always thought Sony's original Memory Sticks had an amazing tactility, compared to SD cards etc.

Then the miniaturisation craze started getting crazy, and they reduced the size, making Memory Stick Duo, and so on. They basically ruined it.

If you're going to make something that has to be carried separately from the computer, make it a pleasant size! Otherwise just integrate it in and don't make it removable. Nano SIMs drive me crazy.

Aspirin Point is a fantastic name for it. Coined, I think!
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Andrew M

11 years ago

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Surely the whole point in a device this size is that that goes nowhere? I have an equivilent size wireless mouse connector that stays connected wherever I go.
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Ben Hudson

11 years ago

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One of my fellow RIT classmates explored USB Jewelry during a collaborative project with the Corning Museum of Glass: http://clayamos.com/usb-glass-jewelry-design
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M4RK

11 years ago

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Good article, but note that these micro drvies are usually designed to stay put animously, such as on tvs and car stereos.
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