The “rewind” buttons remains, but the stop button is no longer with us – it has been replaced by play/pause. Although there is nothing to rewind anymore ( media wise ) some legacy terms will be here to stay. Other functions like the stop button are gone because the playhead that used to be lifted off of cassette tapes are no longer there. No stop is needed. There is no longer a difference between pause and stop anymore in a media context.
So whether thinking about the floppy disc icon on your computer, or something as ridiculous as America not using the metric system, things that we design sometimes stick around.
I will end this post with a message from Green Architect William McDunnough. Somethings we create will temporally be here for less then a moment. But the question of human intention and quality design can differentiate if something becomes a legacy going forward or a legacy in the history books. One is timeless, and the other is dated.
“
Well I think
as designers
we realize that design is a signal of intention
but it also has to occur
within a world
and we have to understand that world
in order to imbue our designs
with inherent intelligence
so when we look back
at the basic state of affairs
in which we design
we, in a way, need to go
to the primordial condition
to understand the operating system
and the frame conditions
of the planet
and the exiting part of that
is the good news that’s there
because the news is the news of
abundance
and not the news of limits
and I think as our culture
tortures itself now
with tyrranies
and concerns over limits
and fear
we can add this other dimension of abundance
that is coherent
driven by the sun
and start to imagine what that would be like
to share
William McDonough”
Good vs Better 