[D*I*Y Planner] Pure and simple, I think the keyword is intimacy. Try and curl up with a TabletPC, laptop or PDA for a few hours. Your eyes hurt, the hard shape is awkward, you’re constantly checking for remaining battery time (or juggling a cord), and –despite this day and age– it’s not easy to build any sort of bond or connection to a machine, especially ones so transitory and mass-produced. However, pick up a nice little leather-bound journal, grab a smoothly-writing pen, and all of a sudden, things become sensual. There is no hunk of metal, plastic and wires acting as an intermediary, nor is there any intimation of data being temporary. What you write on paper is immediately there, forever, and the flow of thought and creativity knows no middle-man: the connection is personal, free-flowing, spontaneous, and free of modern-day digital “interpretation”. There’s something extremely personal about my Moleskine journal. DIY touches on why so many people love them (I need to add ‘intimacy’ to what I originally wrote regarding “Pleasure and ‘The Experience’“).As crazy as it may sound, I think that these are the important things to remember when building software and developing user experiences.