Now that we’ve all had time to sit back and reflect after the success of the Beijing games, it’s tempting to jump forward four years and anticipate the London Games.

During the lavish spectacle of Beijing the nervousness of British viewers and commentators was quite palpable. The Chinese clearly threw so much time, energy, money and human resources into the games that the British quickly realized that the London games would be a few rungs down on the ladder of visual excitement. Not only are the British investing only half as much as the Chinese, but a pound also buys much less in London than China.

No doubt the biggest stars of Beijing 2008 were the sports arenas. The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube were the central platform on which the spectacle unfolded. They provided a dramatic focus for the television cameras of the world. The Olympic games are all about content. A successful games needs an Usain Bolt. It needs a Michael Phelps. However, the content needs to be framed appropriately. The Bird’s Nest provided the edgy, visual frame for the drama of the opening and closing ceremonies and the games themselves.

What will London offer by comparison? Organizers have already created a lot of worry through their choice of logo for the games. I have already written here about the uninspired Design and choice of Olympic stadium. Let’s hope the execution is a lot better than the rendering. In my opinion, the biggest architectural star of the games will be Zaha Hadid’s aquatic centre, shown above. Its powerful, undulating, organic form is worthy of a showcase that only comes around every four years. Let’s hope Ms. Hadid’s vision partially hides British embarassment.

The same Frenchies that created the brilliant Sultan’s Elephant street theatre are at it again. This time they are using a 50 foot heigh, 37 tonne, hydraulic spider to “attack” Liverpool. The show starts Friday (5th September) and runs through Sunday.

The last couple of weeks have seen tremendous publicity for David Fisher’s novel rotating tower concept. In case you hadn’t heard, developers are accepting deposits on residential towers to be built in Dubai and Moscow. Prefabricated (Italian) floor modules are assembled onto a stationary column. Each floor can rotate independently. Additionally there is vertical space between each floor to house energy producing wind vanes.
This is an interesting design, guaranteed to create lots of blog inches like this one. The only question I have is this: how are plumbing pipes and electrical cables routed? I’m curious to see the solution. The sealing issues created by the rotating floors are compounded by the turbines between the floors.

Another definition of good design. This time from a 2100 year old Roman, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. Leonardo’s sketch (above) is entitled “Vitruvian Man”. Although he wrote a stack of books, Vitruvius’ most notable quote is that…

Good architecture (or Design) has 3 conditions:

1. solidity: must be robust (applies to the Coliseum or your new cellphone)
2. commodity: must be useful or purposeful
3. delight: must look great

After reading Dieter Ram’s idea of good design yesterday, Stuart from Edinburgh suggested that we list Sir Michael Bichard’s Five Rules of Design. A lifelong civil servant and afficionado of Design, Sir Michael became the Chairman of the Design Council in January of this year. If you have any comments, use the comment button below, or email me.

1.Great design can change the world and move people

2.If you think good design is expensive you should look at the real cost of bad design

3.Design, creativity and innovation are essential if we are to meet the global challenges of sustainable development

4.Design is not just about products and communications, it’s also increasingly in the services we receive or buy

5.To consume design is a creative act – and everyone can be creative!

Dieter Rams, the Designer famous for many groundbreaking products in the ’50’s came up with the following 10 principles of good design. I would have to say that his principles are, like number 7, enduring. How many other Designers were as concerned about minimalism, honesty, and the environment as young Dieter?

1. Good design is innovative
2. Good design enhances the usefulness of the product
3. Good design is aesthetic
4. Good design displays the logical structure of a product : its form follows its function
5. Good design is unobtrusive
6. Good design is honest
7. Good design is enduring
8. Good design is consistent right down to the details
9. Good design is ecologically conscious
10. Good design is minimal design.

Marketing are the corporate function that everyone loves to hate. Dilbert has done a tremendous job of illustrating the friction that often develops between Engineering and Marketing. But what about Design? Surely, the close working relationship that is required between Marketing and Design is going to result in more unpleasantness? (or should that be less). Lets immagine for a minute some of the new product development programs that may have created differences of opinion. Naturally, this is pure conjecture, but why not let me know if you can come up with any more?

Gillette Fusion:
Designers created the form and the functionality,
Marketing insisted it needed 5 blades and a gross margin to fluff up the value of their stock options

Inkjet Printers:
Designers created the form and the functionality,
Marketing created teeny, tiny ink reservoirs and obscene ink prices

Smart Car:
Designers created the ultimate city car,
Marketing pushed for a powerful engine rather than an electric version - a true economy car for the city

i-phone:
Designers created the slick packaging and gestural interface,
Marketing locked the phone with an expensive service contract

I-pod
Designers created the iconic design and intuitive interface,
Marketing created DRM and i-Tunes, choc-a-block with DRM content

Let me first state that I’m not a softy. I don’t watch chick-flicks and it takes something very significant to even get me to think about crying. However, get me on a commercial airplane at 30,000ft and all that quickly and mysteriously changes. I become a bit of a softy. Watching the inflight movie, I readily empathize with the main characters. The whole experience becomes more emotionally concentrated or beautiful - slightly funny scenes become hysterical; slightly sad scenes become tragic; happy scenes become so joyful, they bring me, a cold-blooded Scot, to the verge of tears.

There is little literature on this subject. I thought the “problem” was isolated to me until I listened to an episode of This American LIfe. I’m now convinced that the phenomenon is associated with “infrasound” which has been shown to elevate emotions. Infrasound is extreme low frequency (less than 20Hz) noise which we can’t hear but which some of us perceive.

I am willing to believe that there could also be a cocktail of factors that are amplified by Infrasound; for example, travelling alone, reduced pressure, recycled air with little oxygen, alcohol consumption, etc.

Infrasound may also explain other events. For example, why many rock music lovers prefer live music to the recorded variety. Unless you’ve got a killer stereo, you’re not going to produce 120 decibells of infrasound like you might with a lorryload of Marshalls at a live event. Infrasound may be the key ingredient that gets the moshpit going, gets you crowd surfing, and gets your girlfriend to flash her boobs. There again, it might just be the strong lager. Infrasound could also influence your mood when you are near crashing ocean waves or a waterfall. Both of these produce very low frequency sound.

Listening to the radio news while sketching or modeling, there are frequent stories about the environment and sometimes it is all too easy to get a bit glum. With that in mind, I decided to put together a quick top 10 list. Firstly 10 reasons to be pessimistic about the future of the environment and then 10 reasons to be optimistic.

10 Reasons to be Pessimistic

1. Cod on the Grand Banks was destroyed in the 50’s. Today, the Japanese and others are doing the same to tuna.
2. Global warming has opened the Northwest passage open for the first time. Instead of worrying about what this implies for the future of the planet, the US and Canada bicker over shipping rights.
3. The most powerful/richest nation on earth elected George W. Bush not once but twice!
4. Frogs and other species are inexorably disappearing.
5. Rainforests are shrinking and some tropical nations like Brazil are demanding to get paid by the West before they start to protect it.
6. Healthier, immunized people in India and Africa continue to have ginormous families as they did when mortality rates were significantly higher.
7. Faced with stark scenarios over global warming, industry and governments around the world continue with more of the same. Big cars, “free”-trade, and unrestrained consumerism rule.
8. Palm oil plantations in Indonesia are relentlessly displacing native vegetation. Similarly, old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest of the US are being sold off for a few shekels.
9. Agribusiness will always seek the highest value yield. We eat animals fed on soybean instead of eating the soybean directly. We sacrifice forest and wildlife for cattle that also contribute to global warming.
10. People are fundamentally selfish. (”Greed is good”)

10 Reasons to be Optimistic

1. New technology will ultimately save the day. Woohoo!
2. Farm raised fish may give some relief to wild fish.
3. Medicine for the frogs being consumed by fungus is being developed.
4. Electric cars and hybrid cars will one day be ubiquitous.
5. Dutch cycling culture will spread around the world like wildfire and inevitably save the day. Nice pics here…
6. High oil prices will redirect our misguided lives - we’re currently at $125 per barrel and counting.
7. When pollution is so bad, as per China, people will have to take notice. Won’t they?
8. Fluorescent light bulbs are just the beginning. Other more efficient technologies like LED are ready to explode onto the marketplace.
9. Global warning gets recognition when Al Gore gets Nobel peace prize for work done on environment. “Well done, Al. I don’t think you’re wooden”
10. People are fundamentally good.

After considering the peculiar aesthetics of the new Jaguar XF for a couple of weeks, I have a couple of theories as to what they are playing at.
The question is, why would Jaguar, with such a rich motoring and racing history, throw away their strong design language at the same time the company is being sold off? Theory A is that Jaguar Designers, realizing that Ford is trying to sell Jaguar off, deliberately sabotage the design in order to make the company less saleable. Theory B is that Tata somehow managed to modify the design at the last minute in order to contrast less harshly with the rest of the Tata lineup.
Most car companies, like Mercedes, use design cues to unify their product offerings from the smallest Smart car to the largest Maybach. Tata have a struggle on their hands if they plan to offer a cohesive product offering.

What red-blooded male doesn’t like Top Gear? How can you not be drawn in by the throbbing engines, good-natured ribbing, and childish humour?

However, let’s get serious for a moment and think about the message being delivered by the corpulent host. With his endearing grin and cocky attitude, he’s pushing big, dirty, ugly consumption. Top Gear, while offering great entertainment, is nothing more than a big lie. The show is all about speed. Whose car is the fastest. Who can drive a car the fastest. How can you make your car faster. Speed, speed, speed. In reality, in traffic-choked Britain, a beige 1978 Morris Marina will get you anywhere just as fast as a Ferrari or Bugatti Veyron. Its not in Clarkson’s interest to talk about this unfortunate reality, so he sticks to the ambience enhancing camera filters, the private racetracks and the equally out of touch personalities in order to keep the message on track: “Buy an expensive, noisy, heavily polluting car and you’ll be happy like me”.

Immagine if Jeremy Clarkson used his enormous appeal for the good of society as a whole and, of course, environment rather than just a handful of wealthy, white men? Immagine if he used his guile and wit to encourage car-sharing, to promote electric cars, or to support public transport.

For most Designers the middle of April is the highlight of the year. That’s because the “Salone” or furniture fair brings tens of thousands of people to Milan to check out thousands of new products and prototypes. Unfortunately for me, this year I was stuck in bed with a miserable flu for the week of the show. I managed to drag myself down to the Salone Satellite on the last day where mostly students and younger (<40) Designers show their crazy new collections.

Fortunately, you can find lots of Milan Salone pictures on the web. Try the following to get you started…

Dexigner
www.dexigner.com

Designboom
www.designboom.com

Core77
www.core77.com

This is the best little product that most people have never heard of. Soap Nuts are literally the shell of a nut that is a natural detergent and can totally replace your chemical laundry detergent. You get clean clothes. You can save money and, being 100% natural, its not harmful to the environment.

I’ve been using these little guys for about a month now. They work. You put the shells in a mesh bag which gets thrown in with the laundry. You can use the same shells for 3-4 washes. They don’t work well on difficult stains since they do not contain strong chemicals.

Once you realize that they work, you start to ask yourself a few questions: why doesn’t everyong know about these? Are the Marketing guys at Procter and Gamble and Unilever worried about soap nuts? Where can I get more?

There are many suppliers available online. Just Google “Soap Nuts”

The catch with quality is that there is no quick and easy solution. Checkboxes can give you a measure of success but they don’t necessarily provide the whole picture. G2 curvature can often be a good thing, but it’s not a complete solution to quality surfacing.

The image above is designed to portray how well-built surfaces can be constructed with G1 (tangency) continuity and how rubbish surfaces can be made with G2 continuity. In each case there are 2 curves created in Pro/Engineer.

A) This is G2 continuity. Where the two curves meet the length of the porcupines is identical. The inflexion in the curvature plot will show up as a distorted highlight on the surface. Each curve is decellerating up to the point where it meets the adjacent curve at which point there is a significant acceleration.

B) This is G1 continuity. The second curve was sketched with only a Tangent connection. While the continuity is not perfect, it is better than (A) because the change in acceleration at the transition point is more subtle. Compared with (A) this curve has been crafted rather than thrown together.

C) This is G1 continuity. It is the worst of the bunch. Not only is there a significant difference in curvature value at the transition point but there is the same decelleration followed by accelleration that was evident in (A).

D) This is G1 continuity. This is a very common case in Pro/E. There is a step change in curvature but the first curve flows into the second without any obvious inflexion. While there will probably be a visible seam at the transition, the overal quality will be reasonably good and probably better than (A). If this surface has a slight texture, the defect will probably not be visible. If it is a polished surface, better rebuild.

Note that these examples are all 2D curves yet I am talking about surfaces. Whether you are creating extrusions, sweeps, or boundary surfaces, you will be sketching or using existing curves. The quality of the final surface is entirely dependent on the quality of the base curves. This is especially true in the case of boundary surfaces. If you have four input curves, the quality of the final surface will be at least as bad as that of the worst curve.

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to things or animals that aren’t.

Most people look more or less the same. The differences that make us young or old or male or female or Asian or caucasisn are tiny. There may be just a slight changes in eye shape or a subtle differences in facial profile. Our brain picks this up and processes thousands of pieces of data to not only determine who we are looking at but also where they originate from, how old they are, what mood they are in and whether or not we like them.

What has this got to do with product design? Well, we use the same part of our brain inadvertently when looking at inanimate objects. It doesn’t know when to turn off. We look at a car and make the same snap judgements based on the shape of the headlights etc. Some Designers, like Stefano Giovannoni have made a career out of imbuing consumer products with human characteristics; just check out some of Alessi’s range. Speaking of which, Starck demonstrates with his orange juicer that you don’t even need a suggestion of a face in order to associate a product with a person.

There are some curious aspects to this phenomenon. In addition to analysing faces, our brain is also constantly trying to find faces. For this reason, we find faces in all kind of strange places where there aren’t any. Check out FacesInPlaces for some great examples of this.

The opposite of finely tuned face recognition and evaluation is “face blindness” or prosopagnosia. Sufferers of this condition might be otherwise normal but have trouble recognizing their spouse or even an image of themselves in the mirror.

To get a small idea about how it might feel to be faceblind, check out the Margaret Thatcher effect. This effect demonstrates how we are unable to recognize the difference between a normal face and a totally distorted face when both images are upside down.

Illustrations and cartoons can really leverage anthropomorphism. Take a global icon like Hello Kitty. A few simple lines placed on a product multiply the perceived value of that product. The owner of this brand must be glad that we

all

interprete expressions the same. Paul Ekman, a psychologist did the pioneering work in this field. He discovered that even in the most remote tribes tucked away in Papua New Guinea, humans all express and interpret the fundamental emotions of anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt and happiness with the same facial expressions. This means that not only is Hello Kitty recognized the world over but we all ascribe the same emotions to her (love, shyness,..?)

Can you think of any products where the Designer is using Anthropomorphism to enhance it appeal?

There is a great deal of debate and confusion regarding quality surfacing and what may or may not represent a class “A” surface. Many Design studios state that they offer this kind of service. Some firms like ICEM (PTC) claim to have Class “A” software. This leads to many users wondering what they are using. Is it only a B modeller? What’s the deal? Should you be doing Class “A”?

Well, here’s the I.D.milano answer. A class “A” surface is one without physical imperfection. “A” surfaces are the ones seen immediately by the customer and can be contrasted with the less visible and therefore less important class “B” surfaces that are less critical. These highly aesthetic “A” surfaces are closely associated with the automotive industry. When you wander around a new car in the showroom, all of the large panels you see will need to be of this quality. Anything painted with a metallic basecoat and a transparent clearcoat and then polished until it is gleaming will show up the slightest defect. When you have a hundred spotlights glaring down on each panel, the slightest unintended deformation of the reflection is unacceptable. This is the reason for this designation.

By the way, you will find the “B” surfaces on non-glossy interiors, stiffening stampings for the underside of the bonnet and boot and on partially hidden areas that you might have to go out of your way to see. Smaller consumer products are no different. Something like a mobile phone or an Ipod that will be closely examined daily effectively is all “A”. The only place for defects is in the battery compartment.

That’s the easy part. Now, the hard part. How to get the “A” bit into your surfaces.

At this point the discussion turns immediately to continuity. C1? C2? C3? What is required? Well, the consensus is that you need at least second degree, C2 or G2 to achieve class “A”.

Now I’m screwed, you might be saying. I can’t create variable section sweeps with G2. I can’t create sketched curves with curvature continuity between new or existing entities. What am I to do?

(By the by, if you are using Pro/Engineer, you can talk about the “G” version. Please don’t ask me to remember the mathematical difference between C and G. Its really not that significant.)

Without the ISDX module, PTC force you to create curves between 2 points in Pro/Engineer. This allows you to force G2 and then create boundary surfaces that are also continuous. However, it is a truly horrible option. Curve between 2 points is not a strong feature in Pro/Engineer and very difficult to tweak. An even worse option is to create composite curves, either by using overlayed splines within the sketcher or by creating a seperate approximate curve feature. This will also enable you to achieve G2. You’ll just have a miserable looking transition area.

You may now realize that even if you can achieve G2, this alone does not guarantee class “A”. In fact, forcing surface continuity at every opportunity does not necessarily make your surfaces better. You may discover that after having spent considerable time achieving G2, the quality of your surfaces is worse than before!

There is another reason why this may occur. In addition to the lack of appropriate surfacing tools, there is another problem. Curves and surfaces inside Pro are only built to the third order (ie. the polynomial after quadratic). This means that it often has difficulties adapting to particularly dynamic changes in curvature. Compare this with ISDX and Alias that use much more flexible curves (up to order 8 or 9 if I remember right). By the way, if you are from PTC and reading this, please correct me if any of my statements are incorrect.

Surfacing is the key skill in product development that ties together the creative 2D conceptual phase with the more detailed, engineering part of the cycle. The problem you see with so many products is that the final product bears very little resemblance to the original concept sketch that the business team signed off on. Sometimes, this is simply because Design had no knowledge off or simply ignored the mechanical requirements. More frequently, it is because there is a disconnect between Industrial Design and Engineering.

The core skill of the designer is naturally sketching. We’re all accustomed to the “wow” look of the concept car sketches historically carried out with markers and now frequently done on the computer. This represents the ideal goal of the design, the look that Marketing would kill to have delivered to the showroom floor but seldom see.

Some Designers attempt to pull this “design intent” into a 3D model themselves while others create 2D isometric views for Engineering to implement in 3D.

Either way, there are risks. This is a difficult step where the design intent of the ideation sketches is frequently lost or toned down. Even if the Designer has a clear picture of the product in his or her head, insufficient mastery of 3D tools may mean that the design remains compromised.

By the way, anyone who read the previous post where I stated that 3D CAD modelling skills were not going to impress anyone these days might be a bit confused by this post. To clarify, almost anyone theese days can create 3D models. Very few people can create a model with complex surfacing that meets the original design intent, is fully manufacturable and is built in a robust parametric fashion.

As you might imagine, we receive a lot of student CVs and sample portfolios. This is true for all Design firms. Unfortunately for students of Design, each year there are many times fewer vacancies than there are graduating students.

So, how do you make yourself stand out? Naturally, it helps if you’ve got talent and to some degree you have to get a bit lucky. Each design director is probably looking for something a bit different and you’ll never know exactly what that is. From our (biased) point of view, here are a few guidelines…

1. Sketching is king. If you can sketch well, flaunt it. Most Designers unbelievably cannot sketch well. If you can’t sketch well, don’t show any sketches!
2. The final result is far less important than the intermediate steps. Many studios are looking for the students ability to show a deveoped process. Do you have an approach to Product Design that can be used over and over again? This is far more valuable than an unpredictable stroke of genius.
3. Showing 3D models is not going to get your foot in the door. It used to be valuable. Today no-one (apart from some very old people) will be impressed. Modeling is a requirement in the same way as using Photoshop or Powerpoint is a requirement. The only exception might be if you can use a parametric modeler like Pro/Engineer, Catia or Solidworks rather than Rhino or Alias.
4. If possible, show a diversity of products and a diversity of design styles. Having a distinctive killer look or specializing in sunglasses or whatever is great if you are opening your own studio. But your employer will be more intersted in variation and flexibility. Frequently, the client will say, “that’s really not what I’m looking for” and your boss will come looking for alternate looks.
5. Often, students will weight their portfolio heavily on their final year project. Even if it is very impressive this strategy may be counter-productive. It may look like you just did bits and bobs for the first few years and then started to panic when it was coming time to graduate.

By the way, we don’t have any vacancies and but we do appreciate everyone out there who has (and will) solicit a job or internship at I.D.milano. Unfortunately, we can’t reply to all your emails but we do keep them all on file for future consideration should something come up.

All Nintendo Wii fans no doubt love the playfulness and level of interaction that the Wii remote provides. Head tracking takes this interaction to the next level. Watch the video below (if you haven’t seen it already) and fail to be impressed! The big question is whether the current Wii hardware can handle the additional processing requirement or whether a new box or companion box would be required. You have to believe there are at least a few dozen people working on this right now. Maybe rolled out with the next version of Zelda? Something for Christmas ‘08? Satoru Iwata, call us if you need help with any Product Design.

1. Contrary to popular opinion, Italians are great drivers. The popular image of Italians being crazy or reckless is probably founded on the fact that many drivers go very fast, routinely drive through red lights and break numerous traffic laws, etc. While this is all true, virtually all Italians are very capable and attentive drivers.
2. Italy is great for skiiers and its not just limited to the Alps. There are ski resorts throughout the country, from Sardinia to Sicily to Tuscany. In fact Italy has more resorts than any other country.
3. Each region in Italy speak their own distinct dialect. What we call Italian is more or less the Tuscan dialect. Virtually all Italians effectively speak 2 languages: Italian and their regional dialect.
4. Most of us associate large families with Italy. This is sort of true. Effective family sizes are swollen because the kids stay at home for ever and the grandparents are looked after in the family home. But, in terms of the number of children, Italy has one of the lowest birthrates in the world at around 1.25 children per woman. In America, the rate is 2.1 per woman (anything less than 2 signifies that the population is decreasing).
5. Digging up the dead. In the U.S. cemeteries often have a “perpetual charter” which guarantees that residents will keep their spot. Dead Italians are not so fortunate. Typically a body will remain in the grave for 30 years after which times the bones are dug up and thrown in the bone pit to make room for new arrivals.
6. Despite Italy’s romantic reputation created by the literary likes of Romeo and Casanova, Italians are sexually conservative creatures. Amongst Europeans, Italians tend to lose their virginity later. And on the beach, it is only the foreigners (mostly Germans and Dutch) who are topless.
7. Italians are frantically learning English. In fact it has become a huge business. Not only is there much more focus in schools (French and Spanish used to have more clout), but nearly all professionals feel the pressure to learn the language of business.
8. The strong family and community bonds that Italians are famous for exist because they (almost) never move. The result of this is that each town has businesses that have been family owned for generations and you will also find pronounced variations in surnames from one area to the next.
9. Presenting yourself in a good light otherwise known as “bella figura” is taken very seriously. Both men and women will dress up to do everyday activities like going to the supermarket or DIY shop or picking up the kids from school.
10. North - South divide. There is a massive cultural split between the more industrial north and the more agricultural south. There is a reasonably potent political force called Lega Nord that wants the north (or “Padania”) to split from the rest of the country. From a Northerners point of view, the hard-working, wealth-creating, north is subsidizing the lazy, more criminal, south. A derogatory term for the Southerners is “terroni” or “farmers”.

In many gamers minds Nintendo was almost down and out. In 2003 Nintendo were failing to keep up with Playstation 2 and stock was trading at just 8 dollars. Nintendo’s 2nd generation box, the gamecube, was a distant third in the marketplace to Sony’s Playstation 2 and Microsofts Xbox. Today Nintendo is number 1 and the stock price is around 70. Instead of just surviving, they have excelled and they’ve done it in style.

Being number 1 in sales isn’t the only thing. Industry experts estimate that both Microsoft and Sony lose money on every console they sell. Nintendo is not only making money (and lots of it) but is also having trouble meeting demand.

Sony chose to compete with pure brawn. They spent billions developing the Cell processor, the Blu-ray disc and beautiful high-definition graphics. Nintendo chose not to compete with power (where they would inevitably lose) and instead chose a smarter strategy. They dumped hard-core gamers and instead targeted a completely different set of users who didn’t have such high expectations in terms of graphics and gameplay.

While Sony appeals to serious gamers and other sad loners who want an immersive experience and top performance, Nintendo went after new users, especially children, women and families with a simpler more light-hearted experience constructed with humour.

This smart strategy resulted in…

• The ability to introduce gesture-based controllers that use accelerometers to measure hand/arm actions. These are probably not mature enough for the more sophisticated high-definition action games that Sony focuses on but are more than adequate for simplistic Mario and Luigi characters. These controllers became the main selling feature for the Wii system.
• Using existing low-cost technology intelligently, gave Nintendo the ability to spend money on Nicole Kidman to sell the new systems to the new users.
• By using standard definition graphics, it is estimated that Nintendo game developers have development costs that are half those of Sony and Xbox.
• And while Sony spent billions developing revolutionary new hardware components, Nintendo spent their development time fine-tuning the gesture based game interaction.

The success of the Nintendo Wii mirrors that of the portable DS. Its low cost design coupled with clever games is more than twice as popular as the more stylish and more expensive Sony PSP. Nintendo have shown that the rules that governed success in the previous generation of games don’t necessarily apply to the next generation. Product development isn’t always about better, bigger, faster. Sometimes (and especially when committing billions in development Yen) it pays to stop and review what is feasible, what people say they want and what bright new ideas might attract a larger consumer base.

Today is the last day of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Over the last few days some 140,000 visitors were either entertained or bored by around 2,700 exhibitors. While CeBit is still the worlds largest electronics tradeshow with more than 6000 exhibitors, companies are increasingly using CES for new product announcements. And last year some notable tech firms like Nokia and my old employer, Motorola, chose not to attend CeBit at all.

A list of past CES product introductions makes fascinating reading (at least for us old-timers). Did you know that the VCR was shown there in 1970 and Pong made its debut in 1975. If you don’t know what Pong is, don’t ask.

The Beeb have a list of their best products from CES 2008.

You can find the main CES site is at www.cesweb.org

The high cost of fossil fuel is creating some interesting developments in the field of ship propulsion. The vast majority of the worlds ships use diesel engines. In the past couple of decades, the trend in ship design has been larger and faster. For example, the Emma Maersk that launched in 2006 can hold more than 13,000 containers and cruise at more than 25 knots. It is the largest ship in the world at more than 400 feet longer than the Titanic and is powered by the largest diesel engine in the world. And more like this are on their way.

While fleet owners have never before expressed an interest in minimizing pollution or reducing greenhouse gases, the high price of diesel fuel is now clearly grabbing their attention. One of the most promising technologies, “auxiliary propulsion kites”, is already being used.

Skysails (shown above) offer massive kites that attach to the bow of a freighter and potentially offer savings of up to 30% in fuel oil (when the wind is blowing in the right direction).

Solar sails are another idea whose time may just be around the corner. These combine wind power with solar power. These “sails” are rigid and typically mounted vertically. The sails can be rotated to an optimum angle to catch the wind and are covered with hundreds of solar cells for electricity generation.

After decades of “traditional” interaction, the way in which we use electronic devices may finally be changing, albeit very slowly. Traditional refers to any device with a keyboard and screen, such as telephones, personal computers, televisions, etc.

The first computer I used at school closely resembled a typewriter. Instead of a display, the output was printed on a piece of paper. Since there was no long-term memory, you had to manually type in the computer program each time and the computer printed out the answer. The keys had the same spindly legs and long mechanical travel as a typewriter. Not long thereafter came the Sinclair calculator and the ensuing explosion of personal computers and personal electronics. During all the intervening years we’ve grown accustomed to two persistent elements in electronic devices: the display and the keypad. There have been some advances along the way, but these two components have been reluctant to change.

A while back, I was involved in product strategy meetings at Motorola when alternate ideas have been not only proposed but demonstrated. We reviewed touch displays that morphed from one function to the next (as per i-phone). We saw ultra-thin, razor-like keys that used haptics to confirm touch. Until recently, the decision would always be made to stay with the existing, tried-and-tested, technology. After all, customers in focus groups seemed to react negatively to unfamiliar things. It seemed that the longer that standard mechanical keypads had been around, the more resistant to change they have become. QWERTY style keyboard layouts and standard telephone keypads show the same stubborness despite the great advantages that alternate technologies have.

The past year has seen the introduction of some new products that might signal the beginning of a change. These products all use gesture for interaction. First, there was the Surface Computer from Microsoft that uses “multi-touch” on a a horizontal (table) screen. Then, came the i-phone which essentially has the same multi-touch screen but was perceived as being much cooler since it is a small handheld device and comes from Apple. Finally, the Nintendo Wii has far exceeded all sales predictions largely because they threw out the keyboard-based game controller and now use motion sensors to measure hand gestures.

Thankfully, the success of these products can only help accelerate the demise of keyboard and screen devices. In the near future we should be seeing even more interesting interaction such as this touch-sensitive, motion-sensitive, LED-lit cube (pictured above) from a British engineer, Andrew Fentem.

Monday morning and we’re back in the studio after the Christmas break. Naturally, we’re hoping for another strong year at I.D.milano Product Design. This will be our fifth and hopefully the most exciting.

Today is a big day for Fabio Capello. Its the first day for the Italian as the new manager of England. He unwisely promised on the 17th of December to learn English in one month, which leaves him only a week or so to complete his task. I’ll be extremely impressed if he succeeds since I’ve been struggling with Italian for seven years. Most likely, Capello, whose names means “hair” will open himself up for much lampooning by the easily amused English press. It’s almost inevitable. In the unlikely event that the situation were reversed and we had a new English coach for the Italian team, I might be able to offer assistance. For example, if you want to wish someone a happy new year (buon anno), it is safer to just say seasons greetings (auguri). If you do attempt a “buon anno”, you must dwell on the double “n” for an eternity or it will come out as “buon ano” which means good anus!

The Personal Rapid Transit system, a pod from which is shown above, opening at Heathrow next year, is frequently touted as the world’s first. But is it? A quick google search reveals that the world is littered with various failed and successful PRT systems. A particularly interesting comparison, both commercially and technically, can be made with one of several PRTs built in the U.S. since the 70’s.

The London PRT system provides personal transport for fliers and staff between airport car parks and the new terminal 5. It uses automated driverless cars that are guided by laser along a dedicated concrete pathway. Power is provided by rechargeable batteries. There are 18 individual, autonomous pods each of which can accomodate 4 people plus luggage. Top speed is about 30mph.

One of the American systems, the Morganstown PRT was built over 30 years ago. It was built for the use of students commuting between campuses (campi?) of West Virginia University. The system basically accomplishes the same thing as the British one but in an appropriately crude 1970’s fashion. A similar concrete pathway is used but directional control is accomplished through guide wheels that oversteer to become “curb followers”. Power is provide by 575V AC current picked up from a live rail using brushes. Top speed is about the same as the Heathrow system. The biggest difference is proably the size of the cars. Each car can accomodate 8 people seated. This difference in size has led many to argue that the Virginia system is therefore not really true “personal” rapid transit. I’m not so convinced.

Yan, tan, tethera? What’s this all about? Well, bear with me and I’ll get back to the sheep in a minute.

One of the major trends in society, at least in the last 200 years, has been the incorporation of and conformity to new standards. Whether you are using your computer, talking on the telephone or driving your car, you would be stuck without the thousands of standards that we have adopted over the decades. They literally make our modern life possible. We could be talking about the metric system or standardized screw threads or standard fits or railway gauges. There are also more everyday examples like the common European currency, the Euro.

My favourite example, though, is what has surely become the worlds de facto standard language: English. It is the language of business, the language of tourism, the language of world events, and the language of music. When a German wants to talk to a Swede or a Frenchman, he uses English.

OK. So what’s that got to do with the sheep? Well, if you were counting sheep in the north of england 200 years ago, you would not be mumbling, “one, two, three…”. Before the world adopted English, the English somewhat standardized their language. There used to be English number systems for counting sheep that changed depending on which region or river valley (”dale”) you happened to be in. For example, in Bowland, you would count sheep from one to twenty as follows:

yain, tain, eddera, peddera, pit, tayter, layter, overa, covera, dix, yain-a-dix, tain-a-dix, eddera-a-dix, peddera-a-dix, bumfit, yain-a-bumfit, tain-a-bumfit, eddera-a-bumfit, peddera-a-bumfit, jiggit.

You can see versions used in other parts of the north at wikipedia.

Incidentally, the lyrical, rhythmical nature of the number system probably accounts for the origin of the notion of counting sleep to fall asleep.

If you are looking to hire a product design company, here is the normal process…

1. The design firm creates sketches or renderings according to your design brief.
2. A design is chosen and a CAD model is created or refined resulting in a final database.
3. Your company must rebuild the data properly using Pro/Engineer or Solidworks (or other).

There are a couple of inherent risks associated with this process. The first small, the second more serious.

Firstly, you’re going to waste time re-building CAD data. Referring to the designer’s model, an engineer will have to create a model from scratch. Frequently this means building in features that are required for manufacturing: determining wall-thicknesses, actions, shut-offs, and draft. The amount of time this extra work will take will obviously depend on the complexity of the design. You do have a second option, which is to use the data from the designer. Typically, this will be in a “dead” file format such as iges or step (meaning that the data cannot be easily modified). This is seldom a good option.

Secondly, as the design is made manufacturable, it is going to change. Nearly always it will change for the worse. Visible split lines, parting planes and draft rarely improve the look of a product. On top of this, you will be forced to contrast the slick, “photo-realistic” rendering presented by the designer with the raw, real-life prototypes from your engineers. The strength of many designers is also their weakness; they spend several years studying Industrial Design during which time they learn to create wonderful images that are great for selling a design but don’t reflect what the final customer will see.

Here, at I.D.milano, we do things a bit differently. Its called “what you see is what you get”. Firstly, we deliberately tone down our presentations to more accurately represent what is achievable. Secondly, every CAD model we create is in Pro/Engineer or Solidworks format and is fully manufacturable with all parts appropriately split out and drafted. This way there are no surprises. A design can be selected based on reality and no time is wasted transferring data from our design studio to your engineering department.

At the moment the Playstation 3 is probably most synonymous with the decision to incorporate Blu-ray, the long-delayed product launch, and the fact that Sony lose money on everyone they sell. In the longer term the Playstation may be most remembered for the introduction of the 8-core, parallel processing, Cell chip.

Developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM, the Cell incorporates a completely new computer architecture. Its basically a super modular building block for computing, both in the way it connects with other blocks and the way it processes chunks of software. Several companies are already taking advantage of this fact by building low-cost super-computers using clusters of PS3s. For example, Terra Soft offer 8 node and 32 node PS3 clusters that offer processing power of up to 5 Teraflops. How much processing power is that? Well, back in 2000 you would have had the worlds most powerful computer; from a gaming platform! For non-gamers, you will inevitably be using cell processors in your high definition camcorder, your HD TV, and even your kitchen appliances.

I love Ikea. You can’t beat it for cleanly designed furniture at low prices. Right now I’m sitting on an Ikea chair, using an Ikea desk lamp. Behind me is an Ikea shelving unit. The only thing that bothers me about Ikea is the misdirection. Just like a magician surreptitiously switching an object from one hand to another, Ikea get you thinking Swedish while buying Chinese. For some truth in advertising, I would like to propose the following…

As you approach the shop, the familiar blue and yellow of the Swedish flag should be replaced by the red and yellow of the Chinese flag. All product names should refer to the country of origin. Names like BJÖRKÅS and MAMMUT may have to disappear. However, BILLY should stay. BILLY is a good name. No more Swedish food in the restaurant. Meatballs will be replaced by sweet and sour pork and Kung Pao chicken.

In fairness to Ikea, they do claim that 6% of their products are sourced in Sweden. However, its not clear if this is furniture or refers to the Swedish meatballs and the great biscuits in the blue tins and the little wooden horses and the Swedish beer, etc. Apparently, only 22% of of purchasing is from China, with 16% coming from Poland, another 11% coming from non-China Asian countries. Italy comes in surprisingly high at 8%. Source…

Amazon launch their “Kindle” electronic paper reader today. If its a hit, it could do for Amazon what the Ipod did for Apple. If its a flop, it probably won’t do too much to hurt the company. The design of the reader is a bit dull. Its pretty much the same format as the Sony PRS 505 reader otherwise known as Librie. Both sport apparently identical screens (I’m assuming Amazon is also using the same Phillips display) and have a full qwerty keypad at the bottom. The Sony reader has not been a success. Using DRM and limiting users to Sony supplied content was never going to work. Amazon, on the other hand, are in a much more strategic position. They are synonymous with books and have 90,000 titles available for download at launch. Clearly wanting to push home this advantage, the only way that Kindle will communicate with the outside world is to call Amazon using Sprint’s 3G phone network. You can pay Amazon to download books. You can pay Amazon to download newspapers. You can even pay Amazon to move your own content from your computer to the reader! This might be a good business strategy, but you would think they would come up with a product name that doesn’t rhyme with “swindle”.

Currently the product costs $400 compared to $300 for the Sony. Electronic paper is a great product. If this product succeeds where others have failed then its good news for all of us. We would save lots of paper printing books and we would save the energy needed to deliver the books. I don’t know that the Kindle will get the same kind of attention and mass early-adoption that the Ipod got. A price closer to $200 with open wi-fi connectiviy would be a bit more interesting.

The hand-crafted, aluminium-wrapped, idiosyncratic sculpture that is Marc Newson’s Lockheed Lounge may be the direction of Industrial Design. Not because of its materials or function or design language, but because of who wants to buy it.

I was first going to write a post about how Newson produces great sculptural forms but he doesn’t really do Industrial Design in the normal sense of the term - design for mass production. I ended up thinking how little that really matters. Designers (and every other profession for that matter) have always gone where the money is. It strikes me that the upper end of the market is really opening up for Design.

Why is this happening? Well, the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer and the very rich are getting extremely rich. Collectible art prices have gone through the roof. There are half a dozen paintings that have sold for more than $100 million and there would probably be a lot more if they came up for auction more often. When you compare that with the almost $1 million payed for the Lockheed Lounge, you can see the attraction that modern furniture created by famous living “artists” might have.

Of course, not everyone can charge stratospheric prices for one-off pieces. You have to be famous to begin with. Newson is obviously not shy about taking advantage of his situation. Rather than go into production, he sold 12 copies of his “chop-top” table for $170,000 each.

In the early days of Industrial Design, our job would have been to create designs for low-cost volume production. Now, it seems that this is the part of the market where opportunites are most lacking. There is minimal money to be made with low-cost, high-volume companies like Ikea. Their mission is to drive cost out of all aspects of the business.

Like so many things that receive loads of publicity, the “smart” car (coming to the US soon) promised a lot more than it delivered. It has been a familiar sight on the streets here in Europe since 1997.

Why is it smart? Well, its small, its a great design, and its easy to park.

Why is it not so smart? Because it could have been a whole lot more. The project’s initial backer, Nicolas Hayek from Swatch wanted a car that was not only small, but also fuel efficient and environmentally responsible. Like the Citroen 2CV, the car was intended to be an innovative, affordable car for young people. Now 10 years old, the car is neither innovative nor affordable. Here are some of its failings…

It has a standard petrol engine and pollutes just like any other car. For a small car, the smart is also very fast. One frequently sees them speeding in the fast lane of the autostrada. Why such a big (turbocharged 1000cc) engine for a two seater car? Compare that with other small cars that changed automotive history like the 375cc Citroen 2CV and the 500cc Fiat Cinquecento. If the smart had a small fuel-efficient hybrid engine it could have been a genuine city car for the 21st century. If the smart had a pure electric option it would have been worshipped by environmentalists and its popularity might have encouraged a sea change in the automotive industry.

It is nice and short for parking but not narrow enough to impact the way in which we drive. Riding a motorbike in Milan, it amazes me how many “smart” drivers think they can fit throught the space between queueing traffic. Once they realize that they can’t, they have to wait in the queue like everyone else. For a car to impact city driving, it has to be one metre wide or less. This is the conclusion of smart’s smaller friend the clever car. Two one metre wide cars can fit side by side in a lane normally used for one.

For a youth car, it is too expensive (€12K - €15K) (even though Mercedes are believed to lose money on every one they sell!)

OK But why not just appreciate the smart for what it has accomplished rather than being critical? Well, according to Wikipedia, the smart logo is comprised of a “C” for compact along with an arrow for forward thinking. After 10 years in the marketplace and yet to introduce an environmentally friendly version, smart doesn’t appear very forward thinking. Their development of a petrol-powered roadster, a petrol-powered four-door saloon, and a petrol-powered SUV for the American market only emphasizes their lack of forward thinking. In my opinion, smart are in the same category as Toyota. They introduce a new typology of vehicle to the marketplace (the Prius which is also 10 year old) and then lack the conviction to follow through with the next step (introducing the technology to the rest of the product range and/or zero pollution vehicle).

Top 6 Things you can do in public in Italy that you can’t do other places

1. You can stare at other people anytime, anywhere. Its OK. Everyone else does.
2. Touching is OK. Even with complete strangers to some degree. There are limits, but in general arms, shoulders are up for grabs.
3. You can stand incredibly close together while speaking. Its not uncommon to see people talking standing with their lips only a few inches from each other and their noses practically touching. To Brits this can be an extremely uncomfortable experience. Coming to Italy? Bring some breath mints!
4. You can discuss all kinds of personal and embarassing medical issues with anyone! (my elderly gardener once told me that his wife was having trouble with her weewee)
5. If you are a man you can hug and kiss other men and still be considered completely heterosexual.
6. You can say “ciao bello” (hello beautiful) to a man or “ciao bella” to a woman.

The design industry is great, but there are downsides. One of the biggest problems with design is that when your eye is fine-tuned to design details it is impossible to switch it on and off. You can’t be a Designer during the week and a non-Designer at the weekend. This leads to tremendous difficulties finding and selecting consumer products and especially bits and bobs for the house.

For example, I’ve been looking for a new programmable thermostat for over a year now. There are plenty of models that I have found that will work just fine, but I just can’t bear to buy an unattractive one and therefore we do without. In my opinion if something is going to hang prominently on the living room wall, ideally it should be a well-conceived and executed product. At the very minimum it should be innocuous or neutral. But ugly or drab. No thank you. In the kitchen of my old house, I had so much difficulty finding handles for kitchen cabinets that we used drywall screws for the longest time and in the end I had to carve my own handles from hardwood!

Of course the more you see or use an object the more difficult the decision is. A juicer or breadmaker that might come out once a month is no big deal. A light switch that one operates a dozen times a day is a more critical operation. I had to replace all my light switches and power outlets within weeks of moving house!

If you are reading this, thinking that this is a strange personal aberration and that most designers don’t give a hoot, you are either not a designer or haven’t been designing for very long. This is a a very common affliction among Designers and the more you design, the worse it gets!

The design for the London Olympic stadium for 2012 was unveiled today. London received quite a bit of criticism for its uninspired logo and would probably prefer to avoid a repeat performance.

However, it looks like they are expecting trouble. Even the architect, Rod Sheard, is downplaying the design, saying “This is not a stadium that’s going to be screaming from the rooftops that it’s bigger and more spectacular,” he said. “This is just a cleverer building. This is a cleverer solution.” That’s all very well and good, but its kind of missing the point. The Olympics are all about being spectacular. It can be argued that they are the principle sporting/cultural spectacle that the world offers. And like it or not, everyone is going to be comparing the new Olympic stadium with the last one, just like they will compare the opening ceremonies from one games to the next.

The Olympic games reflect our society, our technology, and to a large degree the country in which they are held. Why can’t London be green and useful for East London residents after the games, yet still be bigger and more spectacular? I can only hope that, like Bejing, the actual stadium looks a lot better than the initial weak renderings that are lacking in detail.

In the image above, the London design is on the left, the Beijing design is on the right.

Alibaba, the sales portal to the Chinese market, went public today. Shares are now trading at 300 times earnings and the company raised $1.5 billion in a wildly over-subscribed public offering. Alibaba claims this is the biggest technology IPO offering since Google.

Anyone who has used Alibaba will not be surprised by the manic interest in this company. I.D.milano has a small presence on the site in order to advertise our services. Earlier this year, on behalf of a client, we used Alibaba to solicit commercial offers to develop a new design for a USB memory stick. Within days, our mailbox was jammed with offers and most of them were not spam. We received photos, specifications and price lists from hundreds of different vendors. At I.D.milano we have significant experience working with American companies and we are used to the urgency and “can do” attitude of U.S. businesmen. The Chinese seem to take this one step further. There is a sort of clamorous intensity to the Chinese market that one senses when using Alibaba and it is this intensity that is driving the shares through the roof.

A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Deparment of Defence released a paper called “Space?Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security“. They propose spending billions of dollars of taxpayer money to send enormous solar arrays into space. The energy would be beamed down to earthy by laser or microwave and thus the department would save us from dependence on (foreign) oil. This is all hunkydory apart from a couple of things. Firstly, why do we need a public body spending our money on this? What can the department of defence do better than free enterprise. Secondly, anyone who has every watched Austin Power or James Bond will realise immediately that this is a dual purpose machine. Fundamentally, the Defence Department see this as an enormous weapon in space that they can sell as the saviour to our energy needs. They get to keep their current budget plus spend billions more on an additional weapons program. For the record, they currently waste $7 billion per month in Iraq. It should be stated that the writers of this report do at least have a sense of humour. As part of their business case analysis, they state that energy could be beamed directly to disaster zones “…to provide valuable foreign aid”.

Halloween has already come and gone. The shops are now in the process of putting up their Christmas decorations. At the moment I am struggling to find time to write blog entries because we are in that hectic period towards the end of the year where we are finishing up a few projects this year and also trying to organize our work for next year. Of course, if you have a project coming up, this would be an excellent time to contact us so that we can fit you into our schedule.

Mostly, design planning involves resource allocation. The Design industry is a particularly difficult business to manage. Our customers typically want work to start almost immediately. Also, early phases of projects can be very resource intensive because we try and get as much variation as possible into our concept proposals. This often means using an array of external designers rather than just relying upon internal resources. So, if you have some long-term projects coming up, we’d particularly like to here from you!

We get a lot of job applications from hopeful, young designers who are about to graduate. While it might seem like its a difficult profession to break into, its really worth looking back to realize how fortunate all we are to be involved in Design during the current period. Its really quite easy to argue that this could be considered a golden period for Design. Why? Here’s 10 reasons…

1. Design is more respected than ever before. Designers like Eames, Loewy and Sottsass have won hard fought respect and paved the way for a design industry that in many companies is now at the forefront of many new product development efforts. There are more opportunities than ever. Design is an important, established and growing field. Remember that not so long ago many large companies woulld consult ID as a last step in the process. Motorola for example as recently as 1998 were using ID to skin pre-existing components packages. Razr demonstrates how things have changes
2. For many industries Design is the only unique identifier. Products like fridges, microwaves, and DVD players have become commodities. Brand importance is critical today and strong design is needed to establish a brand presence in the marketplace. Once established, brands need to be protected with strong design. This is a process that involves never ending updates and creates lots of work not just for Product Designs but also Market Researchers, Packaging Designers, Graphic Artists, etc.
3. There are an ever increasing number of super rich that can afford custom furniture, yachts, and consumer goods. According to Forbes, there are about 700 dollar billionaires in the world and there are over 10 million dollar millionaires in the U.S. alone. This market should not be ignored. It may not be Industrial Design in the strictest sense, but it is Design and it pays.
4. There are tens of thousands of mass-produced products into the West from the Far East. All of these need products need to be designed. As cost ceases to be a competitive advantage for the Chinese, they will need to move increasingly to Design for product differentiation.
5. The speed of new product introduction is always increasing. Manufacturers need new products every year or two. Frequently the next design cycle is starting before the last one has even finished.
6. There are an ever increasing number of innovative, design-enhancing, and flexible manufacturing techniques available as design options. Likewise, there is a huge and increasing variety of new materials that can change how we go about designing products.
7. Computer tools are a godsend for sketching or modeling or rendering or creating presentations. These tools are now very mature, robust, powerful and affordable solutions for designers. One could argue that computers may have hurt graphic designers with the advent of desktop publishing, but thankfully its hard to immagine this happening with ID
8. Its an ever shrinking world. Increasingly interconnected businesses means more opportunities to work abroad and learn from other cultures. Look in many ID departments and you’ll find the most ethnically and culturally diverse group in the company. Its also relatively easy both to visit and show work at global design shows such as the massive Furniture Fair in Milan.
9. The Internet gives us the ability both to share information and learn what others in the same field are doing. As of today, there are almost 72,000 portfolios on the Coroflot website for example. Publicity is also relatively easy to get. Just make an uncomfy chaise longue out of metal and have Madonna recline on it for MTV. You’ll be a star!
10. Some designers like Karim Rachid and Ross Lovegrove are now allowed to wear colours other than black. This is excellent news for those of is who suffer from dandruff.