re: Needs versus wants I didn't quite get that. Obviously there are many partitions on "quality", Pirsig's is static versus dynamic, and what Zeno Rocha seems

re: Needs versus wants I didn't quite get that. Obviously there are many partitions on "quality", Pirsig's is static versus dynamic, and what Zeno Rocha seems to be outlining is functional versus non-functional, an ancient distinction in engineering (SE). But there's something deeper. The second type, "miryokuteki hinshitsu" seems more akin to "Je ne sais quoi", the perhaps surprising quality that is delightful, being neither something you needed or wanted but something you didn't even know you'd like. Toward the end of the essay he nails something darker too - the misappropriation of that expectation that comes in the arrogance of some designs to presume to know the users' "experience". That is the sense in which I've sometimes found the concept of UX offensive. No designer gets to reach into the realm of subjective experience. It's something that Artists know, but where designers sometimes transgress.