Las Vegas is a fascinating place to consider as "design." In one sense, Las Vegas is an extremely controlled environment that places extreme controls over what people do. But, those controls are architected and designed to specifically push people to experience a kind of freedom wherein they are happy to let go of their concerns and inhibitions (and, therein, their money).

So: a place of elaborate constraints that feels unconstrained. A place that appears chaotic and wild that, in fact, maintains order and predictability. Fascinating. . .

Along these lines, Dan Saffer recently gave a presentation on seeing Las Vegas as design, and he has posted his presentation slides: Learning from Las Vegas (pdf).

The slides are very illustrative and educational. Recommended!

Also, since I am mentioning Dan Saffer: Dan curates a website that I really enjoy, No Ideas But In Things, that features photos of mechanical user interfaces (buttons, sliders, levers, consoles, etc.). As it says in the tagline to the site: inspiration for interaction designers.

(I guess I'm thinking and blogging about Las Vegas because the IA Summit is being held there right now, but I am not in attendence.)