The folks at Dwell have tapped cognitive scientist and design consultant Don Norman to offer up his unique opinion on the design of several faucets—demonstrating that there are people out there that think way too hard about this stuff.

“There are only two things you care about besides the appearance,” he explains. “The amount of water coming out and the temperature.” This seemingly simple balance between image and duty is one that Norman understands implicitly. As an engineer his priority is making sure things operate properly, but as a psychologist he argues that there’s more to functionality than, well, functioning. “Emotions are really the most important part of life. Things have to work well, but they also should excite you.”

(Indeed—emotions and faucets go hand in hand. My faucet makes me cry…but how can I stay mad at it?)

To be honest, the reviews of these faucets are disappointing, but the point here is that these simple everyday fixtures are being thought about in a very intellectual way. I mean, Norman talks about the “aesthetic and kinesthetic pleasure” of the water stream for God’s sake. I get it though. With a background in art and design I can appreciate the massive amount of engineering that can sometimes be employed on items we take for granted. In fact, some of the most cutting edge designers are working on sinks and faucets these days. Coffee makers are getting this treatment as well. It’s just pouring water over a bean but there are some crazy elaborate concepts out there. And why not? These are gadgets we use every single day. [Dwell via BBG]

Koehler (not to be confused with the American Kohler company) also included an elegant control system that increases temperature by twisting the knob on the side and increases water pressure by adjusting the position of the tap. Again, this is only a concept at the moment, but the good news is that you can achieve similar results with a $US4 plastic add-on. [Koehler via DVICE]

That tiny panel above the spout is actually an interface for something like a sink-Chumby, which places email, weather and calendars apps on your faucet. Despite coming across as a little flimsy and unresponsive in the video below, the faucet has a certain 1994-film-adaptation-of-Ri¢hie-Ri¢h-starring-Macaulay-Culkin kind of appeal, which is to say, it’s just about the most ostentatious bathroom fixture you could possibly own.

But I forsee problems. Having an LCD panel next to flowing water seems like a bad enough idea, but requiring that users control the sink’s functions through a touchscreen at the one time when their hands are guaranteed to be wet is a worse one. And of course, before long that screen will look scummier than my flat’s bathroom mirror after a few weeks without cleaning, accumulating layer upon layer of mystery residue until it’s too gross to touch.

What you see here is just a prototype, but iHouse does actually intend for this product—and others, like a facial-recognition thermostat—to come to market. [iHouse via BornRich]

Even if it took a few weeks to accumulate enough of a charge from your daily faucet use to do anything useful with, for the right application (like slowly recharging a battery), this is cool. [Coroflot via Gadget Lab]

It may not talk to you, but the wall-mounted Ondus does have cool features like a touchpad control, digital temperature readout and handy holders for your soap and cups. The price of this magnificent bathroom fixture is unknown but, as they say, if you have to ask you probably can’t afford it. [Grohe via Trendir]

Note: This faucet-vase combination will not excuse the rest of your grungy tenement. [Craziest Gadgets]

The design creates a sideways waterfall effect that ends up tapering down into a well-targeted spot in the sink itself. It also features LED water temp indicators and an on/off button that looks like it belongs on a piece of home theatre equipment. I really love the way it flows though. It looks like you could take a full on shower in the sink if you had to. [Octopus Design via MoCo Loco via DVICE]

I’m sure that is part of the inspiration behind designer Shen Di’s “+shifter” faucet concept. However, the true purpose behind the design is a unique method of conserving water. You see, the faucet regulates the water flow from low to high as the gears progress upward.

The concept certainly looks interesting, but there is one major problem: how do you control the temperature? [Yanko via DVICE]

X-Touch is a product of Newform Italy, and looks to be either a sink faucet or a bath faucet. Either way, we’re glad to not be burning our hands/mouths/genitals from water that’s just slightly too scalding. If they can only mesh this with the type of showerhead that you can set it to a certain temperature and shut off automatically, this would be the ultimate faucet. [Trendir via Like Cool via Uber Gizmo]

Over at Yanko Design you can see the Music Flow concept by Min-Kyung Kang, Tae-Seung Kim and Jeong-Min Og. As you can see, you turn the faucet knob to initiate the musical stream, which “flows” into the headphones connected to the spigot. With me so far? OK, so the headphone cable is a garden hose, of sorts, and it uses a capacitive sensor to detect pinching: If you pinch the hose, the watery music momentarily ceases to flow! Feel free to take your bong hit now, cuz it’s only getting weirder…
• The remote “looks like waves” and controls the player without the faucet knob.
• The faucet knob is actually also a disguised speaker.
• And the spigot, being the player itself, houses a battery that you charge up before attaching to “a wall or window.”
• None of these pieces, save the spigot and the presumably prohibitively expensive headphones, come together.

It’s definitely more, uh, creative than that goofy cow MP3 player, but that doesn’t mean it makes any sense. I almost forgot the kicker: It’s not waterproof. [Yanko]