minus ten – April 1999

Posted on by
Reply

id-mag-apil-19981

Here’s a new series that I’m going to try and keep up with call “minus ten”.  It’s a look back 10 years to see what was going on.  I’ll pick out what I feel got Stuck in Time, good or bad design that was clearly of the moment.  Ahead of Time will be a look at something that had brought some insight to the future and finally, the Test of Time will soon be design classics, at least imho.

id-mag-april-mac-1998

Stuck in time: Apple blue G3, man those colors…

————————————————————–

id-mag-april-kodak-1998

Ahead of time: Give Kodak credit for going green on this recyclable camera, BUT
Stuck in time: this design got hit with the ugly stick.

—————————————————————

id-mag-april-knifes-1998

Test of Time: Knifes, the dots are a bit stuck, and the colors are more neutral than they look above, but I wouldn’t be unhappy pulling one of those knifes out of my pocket today.

————————————————————-

id-mag-april-house-1998

Ahead of time: This aesthetic for the mini home was definitely ahead.  It looks like it could have come out of Dwell magazine last year.

————————————————————-

Oh and give frog some credit for flying the Digital and Strategic flags back then. But that laptop, really stuck in time.

From ID Magazine, April 1999.

iriver doing nice work

Posted on by
Reply

iriver2

Some might say they are riffing off Apple and some might say the design is so simple, its boring.  It also has a bit of mid 80′s Japanese electronics feel, think Sony back then.  I just played with the Spinn for a bit.  It’s definitely a nice product.  OLED display is awesome and the build quality is solid.

iriver1

The Visual Media is really nice as well, simple swiss grid like feel.  They are also talking about a new home screen they are calling “magazine” style on some of their other big screen products.  I think its a really fresh take on media design.  It goes beyond the Apple jelly style buttons, or any buttons for that matter, you just interact with the media itself.  But their website, ugh, in this case, Flash doesnt have anything to do with how fast you can view all of their products.  The site is really painful to navigate as well. That said, the UI on the Spinn was a little strange combining touch and physical control in a way that wasn’t naturally intuitive.

sony_walkman_1

You gotta love the original walkman, it changed the game in personal electronics. 1979…wow.

Challenger challenge

Posted on by
Reply

challenger_ces_og

From a previous post, I bashed the new Dodge Challenger Life After Steroids. Well I actually got to see both the original and new Challenger at CES and now can give you an in person assessment. I still like the original.  The new is nice, but doesnt have the flair of the original.

challenger_ces2

What do you think?

Which version of the Dodge Challenger do you like the best?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Do polls matter?

Posted on by
Reply

polls

Designers typically hate it when people “vote” to make design decisions.

I just figured out how to add polling software to this blog…so how about this, a poll about a poll…

do you like polls? (select as many answers as you like)

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

the Jenga Economy

Posted on by
Reply

The economy has been a like game, one where people have built up an interwoven, towering system, full of money, profit and excess. It starts with a small Tower, filled with resources. Each player takes turns, removing resources without regard to the overall system. They reinvest what they have taken, to make that tower bigger with the goal to create the biggest empire possible. Sounds fun yeah? The Tower is growing, people are making money, everyone is happy. The only thing the players see is that growing Tower of wealth, and even though its right in front of their faces, its foundation is becoming weaker and weaker. They have selfishly used all the resources without regard to the overall system. Something about the game won’t let them stop, many could walk away rich but the game entices them to keep going. In the end, it all comes crashing down. Everything was dependent on each other…and everyone is out. Remind you of Jenga? Let’s hope there wont be a Jenga Environment that comes crashing down on us as well. So what to do? Fortunately, there’s hope with our new President. People on the top floor of that Tower, all now hangin’ with everyone, at the bottom. So time to band together and rebuild, collectively as one. From Barack’s inauguration, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” Thanks to Dan Clements for the conversation that led to the jenga analogy.

The successful Kindle

Posted on by
1

Below is my reply to Bruce Nussbaum’s Design blog about the Kindle titled “Amazon’s Kindle Is A Success–Hooray For Designer Bob Brunner.” I’ve modified my post below a bit so it makes sense without reading Bruce’s post and the readers comments.

Does good design make a product “successful”? Does bad design kill the chances of success? From the replies above, we have a UI and Experience professional saying the ergonomics of the Kindle are bad. Walt Mossberg also confirms this in his review. We’ve also got someone pointing out that “ecosystem” is what is making this successful. And finally, the host of this column (Bruce) says its Oprah and Bob’s great design work, which once again, some folks aren’t happy with. And now we can go back to the start and continue to debate the Kindle’s success. But let’s not.

What also makes this interesting is that we’ve got some very qualified folks speaking to the pros and cons of this device. Of course, they probably haven’t debated in person on this topic, but all present a different POV on the product’s success. So what is the missing component here in this dialog of design? According to Amazon’s figures, its the 240,000 consumers who have bought this thing. What I wonder is, how many of these consumers are “design saavy or qualified” like the blogger and the responders here? And, as Rob (a responder) points out, I’ll bet that those 240,000 people trust Oprah more than any of us qualified “designers”.

I’m a product designer as well, I know Andy and Bob and they both do great work. On a similar, yet off path…What I’ve always wondered about is the Designer/Consumer taste barometer, that is when the consumer wants something that most designers don’t. Like fake wood grain for instance, the designers fight it, “oh my god, there is no way I’ll put fake wood grain on a product”. Yet, somehow, with all those designers fighting it, that fake wood still gets out in the market!

I guess the other question is, is a commercially successful product, always well designed? Seems like, not.



wow, you cant make up stuff like this

Posted on by
Reply

Reading a few more articles in the WSJ, I came across this one about the Honda Fit. The article challenges Americans to see if they really need big, fat trucks and SUV’s. The article was fine, but the first post back was the entertaining bit. Here it is:

“There is no “one size fits all” auto out there. Some people need GM trucks or SUV’s because they haul something for go camping or live in areas where it’s snows. I’ve had a small car before and you are very limited on what you can do with them. If you buy something large at the mall, you have to call a friend with a GM truck or suv to pick it up from the store.

So the Fit gets 36mpg and you are forgot to say oil is trading at $46. The 15mpg SUV you must have tried is the Toyota which gets around 16mpg and uses premium gas. Stick with American autos and you get better MPG readings and better quality. Something a quality article would have mentioned.”

I buy large stuff at Malls like this all the time, I think I need a truck to take that roller coaster home, nuff said.

Not what I expected from Ford

Posted on by
1

or actually, maybe this is what I should have expected from one of our Triumphant Trios from Detroit.

Heres the article from the WSJ about how Ford is going to appeal to consumers with self parking cars.

In summary, Ford is using technology similar to the Lexus self parking system. They are planning to put this into nice, big Lincolns, a sedan and a Cross Over vehicle. (BTW, is the word “cross over” attempting to trick us consumers into thinking that the SUV is dead and the car companies are offering up a great new thing?) Anyhow, I guess auto parking makes sense since big ass cars are so hard to park. According to the WSJ writer, Mullaly thinks this will cast Ford in a more favorable light. Uh Ok, I see Ford in a new light now and its darker than ever.

Adding more money, more technology, for a “low on the list” feature just doesn’t seem right…give us consumers something that has meaning and value, especially in an economy that has people re-evaluating their priorities in life. Ford may have dumped their stable of private jets, but their priorities sure don’t seem aligned to what’s happening with the rest of the world.