Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

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Image Source: Newsweek via engadget

The latest buzz on the Internet comes in the form of the Amazon Kindle e-book reader. I had first initially dismissed it as another e-book reader, but with time it has come to interestingly reminds me of the good old “Internet Appliance” product that was all the rage in the late 1990’s. Launched about 2 weeks ago, it was, according to Engadget, sold out in 5.5 hours! While there is no reports of how many Kindles were available, it does to me, sound of marketers creating artificial demand by keeping the number of units for sale low, ah lah Apple style. Oh well.

Despite that, I am interested to see if this USD$399 product, heralds the start of the new generation of “Internet Appliances” that also includes the likes of the Chumby, Roku Internet radio, and the recent Bug Labs open source product. Why? Unlike the Sony’s e-book reader this connects to the internet.

It’s only 360 Degree Industrial Design!

The Amazon Kindle looks wafer thin and seems to me designed to be a carry and go device. I’m not sure who did the Industrial Design, but the overall form seems very retro computer-ish with its angular surfaces and beige color scheme. (Beige?) Accordingly to Jeff Bezos, the Kindle was inspired by the characteristics of what makes a book, a book. Check out the impressive 360 degrees strategic industrial design planning in his interview below:

As well placed as Amazon was to jump into this scrum and maybe move things forward, it was not something the company took lightly. After all, this is the book we’re talking about. “If you’re going to do something like this, you have to be as good as the book in a lot of respects,” says Bezos. “But we also have to look for things that ordinary books can’t do.” Bounding to a whiteboard in the conference room, he ticks off a number of attributes that a book-reading device—yet another computer-powered gadget in an ever more crowded backpack full of them—must have. First, it must project an aura of bookishness; it should be less of a whizzy gizmo than an austere vessel of culture. Therefore the Kindle (named to evoke the crackling ignition of knowledge) has the dimensions of a paperback, with a tapering of its width that emulates the bulge toward a book’s binding. It weighs but 10.3 ounces, and unlike a laptop computer it does not run hot or make intrusive beeps. A reading device must be sharp and durable, Bezos says, and with the use of E Ink, a breakthrough technology of several years ago that mimes the clarity of a printed book, the Kindle’s six-inch screen posts readable pages. The battery has to last for a while, he adds, since there’s nothing sadder than a book you can’t read because of electile dysfunction. (The Kindle gets as many as 30 hours of reading on a charge, and recharges in two hours.) And, to soothe the anxieties of print-culture stalwarts, in sleep mode the Kindle displays retro images of ancient texts, early printing presses and beloved authors like Emily Dickinson and Jane Austen.

But then comes the features that your mom’s copy of “Gone With the Wind” can’t match. E-book devices like the Kindle allow you to change the font size: aging baby boomers will appreciate that every book can instantly be a large-type edition. The handheld device can also hold several shelves’ worth of books: 200 of them onboard, hundreds more on a memory card and a limitless amount in virtual library stacks maintained by Amazon. Also, the Kindle allows you to search within the book for a phrase or name.

Some of those features have been available on previous e-book devices, notably the Sony Reader. The Kindle’s real breakthrough springs from a feature that its predecessors never offered: wireless connectivity, via a system called Whispernet. (It’s based on the EVDO broadband service offered by cell-phone carriers, allowing it to work anywhere, not just Wi-Fi hotspots.) As a result, says Bezos, “This isn’t a device, it’s a service.” ~Source: Newsweek

Perhaps the designers, wanted to break away from the “Apple” effect, and I don’t blame them, but I’m not sure if the result is right for today’s consumer market and that the bookish tactile or haptic aspects does not seem to be well applied. Perhaps it is too literal in form and the graphic comprising of alphabets on the back does not really help. It is difficult to see in the pictures, but I would have liked to seem some heavy texture similar to that of paper bound hard back books. Regardless the detailing and large usable buttons are superb, that to me is the most important, especially in mobile product.

The Kindle also sports the new e-ink, low power consumption high contrast display, that allows for a 30 hour battery life (recharge in 2hrs), and can be viewed under any light source. The amazing thing is that, in the US, Amazon has purchased free Wireless access all around the country via the Sprint mobile network. It’s not Wi-Fi but according to Amazon it is “wireless similar to that of advance mobile phone network” that allows for connection anytime, anywhere. Hmm… I wonder if it is 3G?

Anyways, while that is all great and dandy, the problem is that it is a pay per use model to access the information. In particular access to free information such as blogs (USD$0.99/month) or the latest News, you now have to pay to get it on the Kindle via a system many people liken to the iTunes. While it does it sound to me another way for the high traffic blogs to make affiliate money, the reality is why pay for something when you can get it for free? While I understand the Amazon shop selling novels through the Kindle, charging for News and Blogs to me seems like a contradiction as most people do fine on the computer.

However, we should not discount the fact that it can link to blogs. As described in the Newsweek article, the fact that it is always on, means it has the flexibility for books to be updated, revised or even serialized. I think the greatness of this device is that it will change the way books are written, and I would not surprise if newer versions of it become some kind of blogging platform that allows authors to write their work on and interact with their readers directly.

But what about the identity of this product? Will it be confused as a PC or a PDA? The product seems to be a device targeted as an extension of Amazon’s on-line shop, therefore other than limited access to the Internet, the Kindle can’t do much more. Strange though, as wanting this device to do more does go against what an Internet Appliance is supposed to be, and that is a focused and dedicated device for doing something off the Internet. Many people are already poo-pooing the device in favor for their multi-functional Windows PDA and iPhone.

So then the next question is, are we really ready for dedicated devices? Or do we still want convergent products like the Nokia N-series phones and PDAs? Perhaps people have progressed with technology and are now advanced enough to handle the complexity that comes with multi-function devices? I’ll have to think on this more.

What’s next?

Going forward and looking at the bigger picture, there seems to be an interesting trend of what I like to call the New Age Internet Appliances. These devices will be low cost, but will make money by providing curated Internet content, which is either free (paid for via advertisers) or will charge in either a subscription or pay per use model. Furthermore these Appliances, are also fairly focused as opposed to the general web surfing Audrey of times past. (So we did have a product that can do more? But it does not seem to work as well eh?) It seems these days, selling products only does not cut it. The Product 2.0 era looks like will start with people selling content before they even start selling their product.

Not only that, it is interesting to see that the successful Internet companies who made their money virtually (for example Amazon + Kindle, or Google and the fake Gphone, or Skype and the Skype mobile phone) are coming back and offering tangible solutions as a means for direct access to services. I wont be surprised if there is a Flickr Camera product in the works. It is ironic that Jeff Bezos (CEO Amazon) commented, especially since he founded a business that is an on-line empire:

Books are the last bastion of analog…~Source: Newsweek

Perhaps this is the inspiration for him to create the Kindle? What ever it is consumer electronics of the future will never be the same and it seems to me the business model will need to start on-line virtually before it comes back to the real.

It has been a good number of months since the I’ve last updated my readers on the status of this project. Firstly though I like to apologize to a few of this project’s supporters for this delay but I have not been idle and was working on it during my spare time. I really was waiting for this time to finally give you an update.

Most of you astute readers would have already noticed that The Un-p3 Project is currently being exhibited at the Dandelion Industrial Design Exhibition. Unfortunately due to the entry criteria, that exhibition is really only for “show”. Therefore I thought to continue and expand upon the “tell” part here at Design Sojourn. This will be a great opportunity for you to ask any additional questions or make comments of any kind. Also I get a chance to explain how I went from the Haptic concept, and came up with the Wave one.

The Un-p3 Haptic concept: For more information see links below

If you missed the original conceptual thinking of this project that I am self-developing in the role of a design producer do take a look at Part 1 and Part 2 first for some background information, especially on the above Haptic concept.

I have to admit that it has been difficult realizing this project and even at this stage we are not totally done. After speaking to more designers about the Haptic Concept, the deeper complexities of my objective of this product’s creation process became more evident. So I wondered, perhaps unsatisfied with the current use of wood, that perhaps I should open my thoughts to consider other forms of craft manufacturing type techniques? But there is this problem going the craft route.

You see the when we look at craft vs manufacturing scale below they are actually polar opposites of each other:

The Haptic concept tends to fall on the more craft end of things, and I would rate the Wave concept as in between the two.

Craft manufacturing tends to focus on one off products or small production runs often hand made, but as a result often suffers from tolerencing and perhaps reliability issues. Mass manufacturing strives on standardization and volume, thus the products will have good fit but you need to sell in the numbers. As the project’s experiment was about exploring the use of craft based manufacturing juxtaposed with an electronic product, we need both small volumes, attention to detail, but still have good part fit.

One day while speaking to some friends working on their design project, I had a “euraka” moment. Why not use a Rapid prototype machine? Not only does it allow me some freedom in design (well almost, the RP machine still has restrictions) but it also allows fairly good tolerancing and part fit that is perfect for building electronic products.

So as I got started and studied the creation process via the Rapid Prototyping Machine, I decided very quickly that I had to designed this concept so that it would be difficult to be reproduced via mass-manufacturing. Undercuts, flat edges, thin walls, narrow gaps, living hinges and surface texture were tricks that came into play below.

The Un-p3 Project: Wave Concept

So there you go, the Wave concept. I have to say though it was a very interesting experience as after more than 10 years working on Industrial Design programs, certain manufacturing “givens” like part line placement or designing for draft have been ingrained in my creative creation process. In creating this Wave concept, it required me to spend a few days re-thinking and re-framing what I know about design for manufacturing before I could even set my mind free. I hope you enjoy reading about this project as much as I did creating it.

So if you had a choice on which direction would appeal to you, if I made a limited edition run of 20 pieces which would it be? Perhaps I may do a 10-10 split? Regardless please do have your say and I look forward to all your comments.

Ok the secret is finally out and one of the reasons why I have been “extra” busy during my down time!

After months of work sorting submissions, we have officially launched the Dandelion On-line Exhibition featuring work of designers from Asia and beyond.

It was really great experience, and interestingly enough it felt more like a bunch of friends getting together to show our Industrial Design work. So before I forget, I like to thank all the people who submitted their work to the Exhibition!

Also I like to personally thank py for all her hard work in helping me get the exhibition up and running. It was a great process getting to the end, and we hope you enjoy the Exhibition as much as we did setting it up. Please do let me know what you think?

Now on a high lets get back to regular programming at Design Sojourn!

I’m floored. This is not a trick, nor is it a story out of Star Trek, and best of all its not even a concept. Yesterday, November 01, 2007, Bug Labs launched for the first time to the public, pictures of what to me would be one of the biggest break through in platform product design I have seen to date. I have to say the potential of this product will be endless. Bug Labs, run by some very clever people, has an interesting vision where Peter Semmelhack the CEO explains:

Consumer electronics products come to market today in a way that has not changed in decades. Companies employ smart people who try to divine what the majority of their target customers will want to buy, fund massive market research programs, build expensive production lines, execute huge marketing campaigns and the majority of the time fail to achieve their objectives (see “Innovator’s Solution”, Christensen, “The Change Function”, Coburn).

On Monday, NY Times reporter G. Pascal Zachary wrote an article that succinctly points out where this trend originated - “There is an unbroken line between Henry Ford (with his Model T) and Steve Jobs. The new iPhone similarly reflects the elite, corporate innovator’s drive to find one size that fits many.” It’s an expensive, wasteful model for everyone involved - producers, suppliers, customers and last but not least, the environment.

BUGbase

This product, which I suppose follows along the same lines as the corporate vision, is just called BUG:

BUG is a collection of easy-to-use, open source hardware modules, each capable of producing one or more Web services. These modules snap together physically and the services connect together logically to enable users to easily build, program and share innovative devices and applications. With BUG, we don’t define the final products - you do.

Essentially you first start with a Lego type product (The BUGbase), where by you then mix and match different components (BUGmodules: LCD screen, GPS, Speaker, Teleporter etc.) to build a product that you want or need. This basically throws out of the window the whole marketing problem of consumers asking “Why do I need to pay X dollars more for a feature on a product I don’t need?”.

Wait! There’s more.

The system is smart enough that it would continue to work with each and every new module that comes out. This BUG’s ability to be upgradable and scalable, means complete customization and offers amazing product longevity. I guess I don’t need to highlight the importance of such a product’s (small) impact on the environment and its nod towards fostering sustainable behaviours? Not only that I can imagine the BUG will be a marketers dream as the practice of identifying a target market and/or predicting consumer behaviour will be less important in the equation as mass customization it truly around the corner. We have come very far from our first solution of mass customization, the dinky interchangeable mobile phone covers.

As with many designers, I have played with a modular concept like this for many years and thus this product is very close to my heart. What started as a Teen fashion PDA with interchangeable accessories, my Red-Dot winning Modular Series Home Entertainment Concept is essentially the same idea but centred around audiophile system separates instead. They have succeeded where we have failed. Well done, and by god how I would love to work for a company like this!

Via: The always Crunchy Tech Crunch

You might have caught this on Gizmondo, but if you have not, it seems in 2001 Matt Presta from Bridge Design was brought in to conceptualise, as a product pitch, the idea of a revolutionary motion sensing game remote control to Nintendo. I’m not so sure if this started it all, but the idea must have stuck and we have what we have today in the form of the Wii Controller today. I am however interested to see how the development went on after this initial pitch seemingly failed and how Nintendo came to settle on the current configuration and shape.

Nice configuration studies and development sketches!

We were brought in to help [Gyration] pitch their gyro technology (which had previous only been used in pointing/mouse devices) to Nintendo for more complex use in gaming—an idea way ahead of its time back in ‘01.

Based on a requirement to roughly preserve the existing Game Cube button layout we created usability concepts that would work for one- or two-handed gaming. We experimented with different configurations through sketches, models and interviewing various hardcore gamers.

Gyration decided to hedge their bets choosing the quick-release idea as it could work for split-handed gaming without shaking up the already old-fashioned two-handed controller paradigm. We weren’t party to discussions between Gyration and Nintendo so we don’t know exactly how Nintendo arrived at their solution.

It would have been fun to take the project further than just a rough usability prototype though. It is cool to see that at least Nintendo finally decided to take the huge risk in developing the current (ambidextrous) Wii controller.

BTW, for the record most of us designers support you lefties out there. Unfortunately the business world often decides that ambidextrous attributes aren’t worth the effort.

Via: Gizmondo

Another fantastic Design Sojourn Reader Question! This week its by Fred from Switzerland. He writes:

Hello,

I am an avid reader of your blog. I like it’s broad scope and honest
opinions. I also like beautiful well-designed products.

Which brings me to my question about industrial design. You see,
we’re a group of friend with a clever idea for an electronic gadget
and we need an industrial designer.

Here in Switzerland, there’s no shortage of watch designers, and we
found one we think is good but he has little experience in
electronics “enclosures”. I would value you expert advice on this
point: is it important?

The short answer is basically yes and no. Let me explain.

A while back I wanted to do some bottle packaging design work, but my portfolio had a tons of well developed consumer electronic products. I was rejected from the job, because the person, an advertising type non-designer, felt I had no experience in packaging work and thus not suitable for the job. However if the person truly understood the design process he would have seen a design methodology or process based deep in researching and understanding the market and consumer as well as, excellent understanding multiple manufacturing processes. In fact I would consider a bottle design a walk in the park in terms of complexity.

You see the Industrial Design profession is build on a foundation of a strong methodical process that can be easily applied to the designing of many things. From toothbrushes, cars, furniture, or a pen, the process most designers take is more or less the same.

So back to your problem. You see a designer’s portfolio is a reflection of the potential of his work, so if you can find a designer that has done consumer electronics then that’s great. But if you cannot, then the answer is not so cut and dry. I would consider the following points when looking to hire a designer or help:

1) Does the designer you are intending to hire have a strong design process and understanding in what it takes to make a product?

2) If he/she is more of a design stylist I would be more concern if he/she can produce a product that would satisfy your brief.

3) That being said, does his design style meet your branding and marketing requirements? No point getting someone like Philip Starck if your product is meant to be a serious business to business solution.

4) Is your potential designer hire experienced enough and have a portfolio of varied and well developed products?

5) Finally can your potential hire exhibit a good understanding in manufacturing processes and materials?

I hope this helps Fred and all best of luck in your hunt!

The only other thing that is as tiring as News of Paris Hilton going to jail is the mega-over-hype of Apple’s iPhone. As usual I go a hunting and after reading most reviews there are to find. I’m now convinced that the iPhone is not that bad if you look past its poor specifications.

Apple has done it again, they have picked up all the major annoyances or peeves that plague mobile phones and fixed it. There are quite a few, honestly, but the big two that they have fixed is in my mind is worthy enough for my purchase.

The first is getting your facial oil on the phone and then some how getting it off. Most phones manufacturers seem to always want to have a “ridge” around the screen, hoping that it will pad the screen from your face. Well this works only if your face was Optimus Prime. Otherwise more people like me gets “gunk” and dirt build up around the edge of the screen.

Yep thats my phone, except the edges around the screen are not THAT clean. Image Source: tomrt10

The Industrial Design of the iPhone, not only flushes the screen with its external housing, it is slightly raised making it easy to wipe your “gunk” completely off. So the concept is that not matter what you will get “gunk” on the screen, so now lets make it easy to maintain it. Smart. Not only that the screen and the display is, apparently after some video drop tests, rock hard. (note: this video is almost too painful to watch)

Image Source: engadget

The other big peeved of mine that has been fixed, is that the iPhone, by using a proximity sensor, automatically locks your screen display when you bring the phone close to your face (about 0.75 inches), to answer or make a call. It is unfortunate as the sheer genius of this has been over shadowed by that landscape or portrait orientation display switcher featured in all the iPhone Ads.

The only other issue is the retraining that humans will have to do. Put it this way, I have been so damaged by Windows OS that I find the Mac OS to “hard” to use. I think people, so used to the way mobile phones are these days, will have to go through a period of adjustment.

Anyways as a closing note, if you just want to read that one iPhone review and not have to got through the rest, I suggest the ultimate iPhone review at engadget. Nice and detailed.

In the same spirit of the Mac vs. PC ads, Stefan (from Into Mobile) and Ricky (from Symbian Guru), takes a very tongue in cheek look at some of the failings of the iPhone. Not as polished as the original Mac vs. PC ads but they get the message across loud and clear. Here are the first 2 episodes of their six part series, meaning they have identified 6 reasons that the N95 is better than the iPhone. Enjoy!

Nokia N95 vs iPhone: MMS

Nokia N95 vs iPhone: Camera

Via: Darla Mack

Edit: Check out Part 3: Web browsing, Part 4 and Part 5!

Classic steam punk gear, the goggles, to be put it on before you jump on your flying ship that some how flies without wings. Image source.

Wired magazine has a wondrous on-line exhibition called Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk that reminds me of the very honest and inspiring futuristic design in the time of Dr Who, Star Wars and Jules Vern’s 2000 Leagues under the Sea. These objects have been a great source of inspiration for me as a child in my decision to become a designer. I can always remember that these steam punk objects have a certain crudeness and yet in-depth honesty that makes it obvious what the objects are meant to do. Furthermore much of the designs, though supposed futuristic are a reflection of the tastes of that era. (Victorian trim anyone?)

More recently movies and anime such as Wild Wild West, Last Exile, Howl’s Moving Castle and Steam Boy continues to fuel my love for this genera.

Via: reBang

It’s that infectious Apple marketing engine at work again. This time the Solutions Research Group has caught the bug by releasing a very nicely designed statistical layout on the type of people who will plans to buy the US$499 iPhone. The interesting thing is, to date is nobody except Apple, has seen, played or used the real thing. Yet, if you belief the numbers, Apple has pulled off an amazing coup by getting these demographics to chase a dream.

We received a series of graphics from Solutions ResearchGroup showing the profile of people who are interested in buying the US$499 version of the Apple iPhone. The information comes from Digital Life America, SRG’s independent syndicated trend study. The results are based on an online survey of American consumers in May 2007 (1,230).

That my friends is the power of 360 degree branding. If we only could equally design products that has such a powerful consumer pull?

Via: Darla Mack