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: industrialdesign
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)
22
Aug 08
Ten Future UI Concepts
Smashing Magazine describes some future UI concepts, including several for mobile devices.
“Below we present 10 recent developments in the field of user experience design. Most techniques may seem very futuristic, but some of them are already reality. And in fact, they are extremely impressive. Keep in mind: they can become ubiquitous in the next years.”
Link: 10 Futuristic User Interfaces (smashingmagazine.com)
16
Aug 08
Genesis of the TiVo remote
“Like any remote, the designers were adamant about keeping the remote’s button layout as simple as possible. But with the DVR’s numerous features, the designers needed to create lots of extra buttons. To keep things straight, each button needed to have a distinctive feel, giving the ability to control the remote without even looking at it, which Newby described as a “key Braille-ability” surprisingly helped by the “blank finger parking spots between keys” that were equally important.”
Link: Story of a Peanut: The TiVo Remote’s Untold Past, Present and Future (gizmodo.com)
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)
7
Jan 08
Rokr E8, touchscreen with haptics and tactile targets
At last, the kind of touchscreen I’ve been waiting for – a full screen touch UI with haptic response and tactile finger targets. This is the kind of touchscreen device you could use with one hand. Look forward to seeing more developments in this direction.
Link: First Video of Moto ROKR E8’s 100% Buttonless Touch Interface (gizmodo.com)
Link: Motorola Rokr E8 (motorola.com)
8
Nov 07
Chinese cigarette phone
I couldn’t resist sharing this little gem. MP3, 1.3 megapixel camera, and seven cigarettes.
Update: just found a review and video of the phone in action at Superlocal
Link: PCOnline (pconline.com.cn)
20
Aug 07
Nokia and emerging markets
Nokia’s design director, Antti Kujala, talks about design and emerging markets.
“In India, there’s a lot of aspiration in a purchase. It’s about looks, style, and projecting the right image. [A phone is] not just a status symbol but about people trying to acquire things to move to the next level…It has to be the right bargain in China. So you have to hit certain price points. Africa is a lot like that, too. The next big thing is going to be how to understand these global traits and translate them into functionality and usefulness while designing a product.”
Link: Nokia’s Global Design Sense (businessweek.com, via)
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)
2
Apr 07
Q hits and misses
Adam Richardson writes about how Motorola’s Q marries great industrial design with less than great software.
“It’s a beautiful product, but one that is saddled with a clunky interface. I haven’t thought this well enough through yet to know if it’s a universal law, but it seems like experience design is like a chain, it’s only as good as its weakest link. The weaknesses only highlight how close the strengths have come to achieving greatness. Unfortunately it appears the Q has missed nirvana.”
Link: Motorola Q: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory (richardsona.squarespace.com)
18
Mar 07
Emporia simple phone
The simple phone meme rolls on…
“For the rest of us, the great news is that an obscure Austrian company has come to its senses and called a halt to miniaturisation and complex-isation…And it’s sold 50,000 of them in a couple of months. Emporia’s phone has no digital camera, no internet access and no instant messaging capabilities. It does have a big red button to call relatives or friends in an emergency, is compatible with hearing aids and can run on over-the-counter AAA batteries.”
Link: Rejoice in simple phone
7
Feb 07
Text input, upside down
A design for texting with the device orientation inverted. This is just a patent application, and not a real product. It’s an interesting idea, though, because it doesn’t ask people to learn new input systems but rather just change the orientation of the device.
“Typing text messages in this manner is awkward, as the mobile is merely held pinched between the middle finger and the palm, while most of the handset extends unstably beyond the user’s palm. Furthermore, the thumb’s range of movement is restricted by the lower orientation of the keypad.”
Link: Mobile phone layout (iol.co.za)
