A visit to IKEA usually means house moving, renovating, and too much fun spent with LEGO for grown-ups. But is there an element of videogame design hidden away within the Swedish minimalism?
I never went to IKEA for videogames.
I went there for Swedish pillow covers.
But somehow I ended up with videogames. Not literally – though the day the Nordic furniture giant designs a game is a day I’ll be first in line to buy it. No, after traipsing around the gigantic, fulfil-every-homeware-need store a short drive from my home, I came to videogames through my own imagination, through IKEAs design philosophy, and through a quote emblazoned at the store’s entrance.
“Design Intelligence,” it read, “when the function is part of the design”. Continue reading →