The combination of creative design and innovative technologies has become a commonplace feature in the modern era. New technologies as this study demonstrates are emerging each and every day, creating new opportunities for the development of products that meet multiple needs, serve many different user communities, and enhance the quality of life (Dant, 2005, p. 33). A number of these products ranging from Apple's smart phone to the Magic Mouse also created by Apple demonstrate the ways in which products that are radical in terms of their design concept become standardized and ultimately commonplace as they are adopted and accepted by user communities.
Interestingly, as the report suggests, technologies that are initially developed for one purpose are amenable to transformations that make them viable in consumer products. Even the Internet which was originally developed to facilitate military communications, owes its origins to a non-commercial use though it has become in relatively short order an extremely successful commercial and social networking vehicle. In a similar manner, biometric technologies which use often sophisticated individualized identifiers such as retinal scans, are becoming integral parts of consumer use systems such as home security systems. Driving the development of these technologies is their capacity for commercialization.
A substantial discussion of packaging and design was included in the review of literature. As noted by Douglas and Isherwood (2005, p. 46), design for any object is necessarily focused on conveying meaning and value as well as facilitating function. The products generated by various technologies are symbolic of technological innovation and are simultaneously consumer goods that must be packaged and presented in a manner that not only tells consumers what they are, but also appeals to consumer aesthetics. In other words, products like the iPhone or the laptop computer are ...