In Twitter co-founder Evan William's TED talk last month, he talked about the unplanned and unpredictable uses of the 140 character real-time update application, Twitter. It's been used by newspapers to update readers on real-time stories, by over 40 congressional members, by crisis fund raisers, and by an LA Korean BBQ Taco truck that Twitters its next stops that draw lines around the block. Third-party applications include devices that allow your plants to Twitter you when they need water.
Most interesting is how the company is designing evolving features based on the innovations of users, like using key word tags to facilitate searches and creating replies to tweets. This is organic design in action, where design follows the pull of actual user needs rather than the push of designer imperatives. More software innovators are relying on blog dialogues and tweets to inform and inspire their next moves in design. May this trend spread to all dimensions of design including the design of consumer products, public services, public media, and community architectures.
