bpope’s blog

Today, Core77 highlighted a Businessweek article that commented on a rare talk that Jonathan Ive gave. The whole thing is pretty good, but one section really illuminated why he and Steve Jobs are on exactly the same wavelength.

Ive’s own commitment to the design process is precisely why, he said, if you don’t like Apple products, then you and he have a problem. Well, he didn’t put it exactly like that. In delicate Ive speak, this was, “We maybe would have a difference of opinion, but I can say it’s that way because that’s the way we wanted it to be. There’s not an excuse.”

I think the Polar Clock is one of the more interesting, and clever, screensavers I’ve come across.  Each ring represents a different scale of time (seconds, minutes, hours, days of the week, day of the month, and month of the year), and the rings sweep around their circumference as time marches on.  Additionally, the rings are slowly, but constantly, shifting colors.

It’s available for both Mac and Windows, and also as a widget and iPhone app.  Find out more here.

Update: while gazing into space looking for inspiration at work, I noticed that the color of each arc is actually dependent upon its sweep, it’s not just a random transition of colors (for example, you’ll notice that as the second “hand” passes the minuted “hand” they’ll take on the same color.  the same happens as it passes each of the other “hands”).

I’ve thought this was a good idea for a while, but I feel like the US is too litigious a society for actual implementation.  Some lucky students in the Netherlands have their dorm outfitted with climbing holds:

Wouldn’t it be sweet if the side of the Green Building had holds bolted on?  MITOC could administer it and everything (run training courses, provide equipment, etc. similar to how the bouldering room is currently run).  Admittedly more realistic is something like this:

Until then, I’ll keep playing in the MIT bouldering room, on the chapel and the wall behind Bexley.  Also, I’ll keep dreaming about REI or EMS installing one of these alongside their indoor sport climbing walls.

Artificial Ice Climbing

All photos taken from www.eikongraphia.com, photos link to the original posts in which they appear.  Credit to the climbers [at] mit list and Jessica Lam for sparking this train of thought.

Ignoring the fact that some critical components are missing (e.g. the camera), this after-market case brings up an interesting point of design.

In the consumer electronics industry, more specifically at Apple,  industrial designers are starting to pay more and more attention to the interior of their products, too. To some extent this has been the case since the original Macintosh (Steve Jobs required that ribbon cables follow Apple’s rainbow color scheme). Currently “user serviceable” areas in the laptop lines are taking on more of Jonny Ive’s aesthetic.

To that end, I guess it’s obvious that the inside of the iPhone was not meant to be “user serviceable” but it will be interesting when the inside of the iPhone is just as impeccably designed as the ouside.  Oh, and the etching on the clear case is fugly, too.

addendum: as campo reminded me, the cables in the original macintosh ended up being generically colored because Jobs’ requirements were very expensive.  Nevertheless, you can tell where Jobs’ head was (and is) at.

for those of you that are interested by design, technology, and innovation, this is a really interesting piece in the NYT about how collaboration and interaction result in incremental developments that are often only perceived at the ‘eureka!’ moment.

The really important message here is that the results of this man’s research/observation can be used to improve businesses and research ventures. Especially in this climate, I’d say that’s exactly what we need. (Speaking of which, click on through the link, the Times could use your help too!)

i think i’m done with this round of design and content changes, so i hope that they few of you who visit this site enjoy them. if you’ve got any comments/suggestions, please let me know. thanks!

Some words that all product designers and industrial designers should take to heart:

Companies should be true to the material. That means making plastic look like plastic, metal like metal and rubber like rubber. Honesty with materials means you are being honest with your customers.

This quote is from Cormac Eubanks, a principal at Frog Design, was quoted in this Gizmodo article. I wanted to re-post it because I heard almost exactly the same words from Jonny Ive this summer. Makes sense, right? Tell that to the businessmen…

I know, having worked on their design, I’m supposed to be an Apple guy, and proselytize for the iPhone with all my waking hours.  Still, I hate to see good products get categorically panned when they shouldn’t.

Let me preface this by saying, I haven’t used a Blackberry Storm.  (Though, I really want to see what their touchscreen feels like.  I just haven’t gotten the chance yet.)  Every review I’ve read has said the same thing though: the Storm is a disappointment in almost every way.  The software is slow and unresponsive, the UI sucks…stuff like that.  Back to Apple…nearly every complaint I’ve heard about the iPhone has been software related (yeah…thanks Campo, haha).  Sure there’s some hardware stuff too (the recessed jack on v1.0 or the fingerprints on the touchscreen), but mostly it’s software needs.  Jumping over to e-books, the Sony e-reader outclasses the Kindle in nearly every department, except the book distribution model, which is essentially also a software thing.

The point I’m trying to make is that, as a product design engineer, I would sweat over tenths and hundreths of a millimeter in product thickness or width.  I would spend hours and hours agonizing over how to make a button feel just right.  Yet all of these details are eventually overlooked in the end because it’s all about making a complete product: integrating software, hardware and marketing.  It’s the complete package that matters to consumers, and admittedly that’s what’s important in the end, but I hate to see really good engineering shortchanged in the shuffle.

So, please, take a moment to appreciate some of the good things in a product before categorically saying it sucks.  Thanks.

For years, I (and I’m sure many other people) have dreamed of an LED billboard on the back of my car, or the front, to express what I really mean to other drivers.  Only things like “thanks for letting me in” or “you’re an excellent driver,” of course.  Never anything bad, I promise.

So, when I saw the “Drivemocion LED signs for cars” headline on Gizmodo, I got a bit excited.  Of course, it was for no good reason.  I had conveniently missed the “Emoticons” precursor to the headline.  Apparently all this sign does is display one of 5 emoticons depending on what you input on your dashboard-mounted cntroller.  Seriously, if I want to let some driver in Boston know that his/her tailgating is not appreciated, flashing a sad-face through my back window is just going to encourage that behavior.

Check out the link for a video if you’d like, and you can be just as disgusted as I was…

Maker Faire is a two day festival that’s all about DIY (do-it-yourself), and yes it’s really spelled that way. I went with Dave and Adam (two guys from work) and their girlfriends (yeah, being the 5th wheel is pretty awesome).

Anyway, it was pretty incredible…there were people driving around in cupcake cars, huge steel sculptures (pictured above), battle-bots, steampunk everything, a larger than life rendition of the Mousetrap game, lots of things on fire, a lego covered Jeep, torque driven spheres…and I probably missed the vast majority of what I saw there. Check out more photos via Flickr, either a set or slideshow.