Quick! Without thinking, name your favorite designed object. If this question induces a state of panic, take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Why didn't I just say, 'iPhone?'" Never mind that you still have a Palm III, if you live in New York, Design Life Now, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum's third triennial, might be the cure.

Work by 87 designers across a mind-boggling array of disciplines, from high- to low-tech, from home- to factory-made, from aesthetically pure to purely ugly, the show, as usual, is a hodge-podge of ideas and execution. But once you sail past some schlocky items like Scooba, the robotic vacuum cleaner, and things that by now seem, well, not very new, like surface design for skateboards, there is plenty of thought-provoking stuff, and things that are way-out fun.

In selecting objects that reflect the importance of design for daily life, the curators identified five categories of impact: emulating life; community; hand-crafted and do-it-yourself; and transformation. The result is that visitors will see some objects so specific that the public usually never even hears about them; one here from the biomimicry discipline is a video game that helps serious burn victims recover. There are far too many objects represented in the exhibition to go into detail, but following is a short list of my favorites, in no particular order.

Newspaper Café by Toshiko Mori Associates, Architects
Napali, Clear Blue Hawaii's transparent foldable kayak, by New Zealander Murray Bloom
LifePort Kidney Transporter by Organ Recovery Systems
Coney Island Parachute Jump Illumination by Leni Schwendinger/Light Projects, Ltd.
FlatPak House by Lazor Office
Gradient Dish Rack by Ransmeier & Floyd
Panelite Cast polymer structural honeycomb panels
Rapidly Deployable Shelter by Hoberman Associates
Mother and Child Medical Center by Architecture for Humanilty
Knitwear by Tom Scott
University of Puerto Rico Botanical Garden by Field Operations
Robolobster by Joseph Ayers
Sea Sounds, seashell bag by Judy Geib
Aerial Photography Kite Kit by Make magazine
Material Furniture by Christopher Douglas

If you slow your pace and take advantage of the concise, informative wall labels, your visit will be rewarded with greater awareness about design for all kinds of users. Once you settle in for a quiet evening at home, you might even look around at the objects you selected strictly for their design quality.

Design Life Now continues at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum through July 29. Please check the website for details.

Illustrations, top to bottom: FlatPak House by Lazor Office; Gradient Dish Rack by Ransmeier & Floyd; Coney Island Parachute Jump Illumination by Leni Schwendinger/Light Projects, Ltd.; Napali, Clear Blue Hawaii's transparent foldable kayak, by New Zealander Murray Bloom. Courtesy of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.