Xanthe Matychak investigates what designers can learn from poetry (and we're not talking iambic pentameter here--though we're sure some UI keener has tried to run with that), providing some inspiring tricks toward innovation and some real-world examples. A taste:

Even though our research tells us that consumers "adjust" to new technologies, that we can tap into (what cognitive scientists call) "Fluid Intelligence" and learn how to operate increasingly complicated gadgets, I believe there are hidden costs in those adjustments. So I tend to be interested in design that doesn't play that game, design that instead opens itself up to discovery and empties itself of the expectation that every design problem is to be solved with technology. Technology is certainly a part of the equation, but technology in and of itself doesn't satisfy. That's why we always want a new one.

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