You know, I think that it's really quite fascinating how Ikea develops all of it's furniture to be flat-packaged, transportable, and fairly easily to assemble at home with little to no words, all while at an affordable price. I've done some work with mechanical design in my design class, so I have come to understand exactly how difficult to create an intuitive design. Seriously- all of the holes in an Ikea product are easily distinguishable. Ever wonder why they add pre-drilled holes that you never end up using? It's so that you can easily tell which side is which. Have you ever actually put the wrong screw in a piece of Ikea furniture? I haven't. (except when I don't use the instructions.) Speaking of their pictorial directions, they have a sort of magic. The way you assemble the parts never makes sense when you start, and you ma frequently feel like you know a better way, but after it all comes together, you see the method to the madness.
It's for these many reasons that I have oodles of respect for the Ikea engineers, those stalwart people who bring me my flat-packed, Swedish magic.
