Taking the form of a DIY tutorial, the Canon web site shows how they prototype the forms of their cameras.
Link: Balsa Wood Mock-up Modeling Tutorial (canon.com)
Posts Tagged: id
25
Aug 08
KDDI Musical Concept Phones
An interesting partnership with Yamaha. Click the thumbnails across the bottom of the page to look around at the different concepts.
Link: AU Design Project (kddi.com, thanks Matt)
25
Jan 08
Adaptive form factor concept
Nokia concept video demonstrating adaptive form factors. Also a nice example of lo-fi video concepting.
(for those on the RSS, click the link for the video)
Link: YouTube – Nokia 888 Design (youtube.com)
8
May 07
The story of Helio’s Ocean
Technology Review tells the story of Helio’s new Ocean handset.
“The Ocean’s designers also sought the easiest possible way to let users reach other people or search the Web. Typing a few letters will bring up your list of contacts: hitting P takes you to “Paul Smith,” “Joe Parker,” and so forth. Nothing novel there. But then came an idea: why not make this work for search terms, too? If you keep typing until your string of letters no longer matches a name in your contact list, it becomes a search term. Type in “pizza,” hit Enter, and unless you have a friend named Pizza, you are now searching for pizzerias without even opening a Web browser.”
Link: Soul of a New Mobile Machine (technologyreview.com)
16
Jun 06
Groundbreaking game controller designs
Summary of the 11 game controller that have taken gameplay to new levels. Along with the most annoying interstitial ads I’ve ever seen.
“The Zapper shipped with the original Nintendo Entertainment System, bundled with seminal light-gun game Duck Hunt as its early companion. But it was games such as Hogan’s Alley, Gumshoe, and Operation Wolf that helped to make it a success. Though the Zapper wasn’t the only light gun to hit console systems, it was without a doubt the most successful, both commercially and culturally. And besides, had Nintendo never released the Zapper, we may never have seen the greatest light gun game of all time—the classic arcade shooter Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
(photograph from gamepro.com)
Link: The 11 Most Groundbreaking Controllers of All Time (gamepro.com)
19
Dec 05
Materials things are made from
“Some early starting points for the project have been to look at how materials affect the form of the mobile, and in particular, what new opportunities for change they give us. Note that this isn�t a product design brief, so we�re not trying to improve the design of mobile phones in general. But rather we�re looking at what happens when the shell of the mobile is made out of paper, for example, or is stitched. These present opportunities that only emerge when you�re not having to go through a 10k+ unit production run. For example, the highest quality products � historically � were often hand made, and these were the ones most tailored to specific needs.
“As well as looking at how materials (and the practices of the people who work with these materials) affect the phone, we�re also looking at how personalisation of Nokia phones can change their meaning or impact culturally.”
Link: Nokia personalisation project (schulzeandwebb.com)
16
May 05
The shape of that thing in your hand
Russell Beattie took a shot at defining the different “standard” mobile form factors. While he doesn’t provide any definitive answers, it’s nice to see some of the abstract form factors next to each other.
“These are all radically different devices, use cases and form factors. But it’s nice to sort of see them laid out like that no? You can kind of see what the reason for the design is and you can feel yourself being drawn towards one or the other, no? I really like the Typing one above. I like the idea of having a big screen on its side that I can type into. But that’s probably because I’m a geek. Others I’m sure will pick one of the others that they’re more fond of, can imagine fondling and having in their pocket all day.”
