a little night research

nice write up on kind of semantics, or more the way a product is used. urging designers to design with less shielding of the workings (more of systems, eg airports). he warns that fully designed systems can be a nightmare. I agree, but think its important not to want to control the random actions within a system. It shouldnt be a case of asking the user to choose between a list of actions, its almost like asking the user to make it exciting for themselves...
information vs persuasion
interesting but not competely relevant to the lamp. talks about matching items according to their semantics on web based shops and then recommending products to users according to the semantics which appeal to them (i.e selling a 'vintage' couch to someone who previously bought a 'vintage' vase)

It's said that the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto designed a concert hall foyer in such a way that people when walking across the foyer towards the concert hall would not have to interrupt the conversations they were involved in. They would not need to find and interpret signs or difficult room forms in order to find their way. Aalto put a light shaft at the end of the foyer. People walked towards the light and having done that found themselves just above the stairs to the concert hall. [Ejhed, personal communication]So one function of the foyer is that it does not interrupt ongoing conversations. This function is not visible in itself but it depends on the real, visible forms. Form as function. What is interesting in this example is that the environment supports human behaviour. We can act without paying that much attention to what we do.
from this absract