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Toys Technology Hardware

Industrial Design Winners Announced 73

Posted by timothy from the underrated-field dept.
prostoalex writes "Every year Industrial Design Excellence Awards try to pick the products, whose usability, interface and design qualities are unmatched by rivals. 130 winners are announced in 12 distinct categories. Of special interest are Computer Equipment (congratulations, Samsung, Apple, Logitech and HP) and Consumer Products (Apple, Nokia and others)." (Earlier this month, we posted about Apple's selection of winners; there are quite a few others worth looking at, though.)
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Industrial Design Winners Announced More

Industrial Design Winners Announced

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  • To me this is industrial design (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Saven Marek ( 739395 ) on Sunday July 25, 2004 @09:52AM (#9794346)
    To me its not necesarly the look of an object like an Apple or Ipod that makes it good industrial design its the whole purpose

    the look and the feel and how well it works and how easy it is to manufacture. How easy it is to tool and how easy it is to modify if need be, and how well everything supports its intended purpose. It is inside and out and part of the process of manufacturing that should be considered the whole way through

    The Nets Biggest Anime Gallery's [sharkfire.net]

    • Example (Score:5, Informative)

      by mfh ( 56 ) on Sunday July 25, 2004 @10:04AM (#9794411) Homepage Journal
      A great example of what you're talking about is found in "Cradle to Cradle" [amazon.com] by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. I heard a CBC radio broadcast last week in my car that had Michael Braungart on it and it was fascinating. He wants to see products go from being made to returning to raw components efficiently. I might add, this guy isn't a typical Enviro-nut TM. He's actually quite intelligent and pretty far from the fringe, from what I could tell when I heard him on the CBC. The book Cradle to Cradle was also reviewed on Slashdot [slashdot.org], with a critical 10/10 rating.

      • Re:Example (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Saeger ( 456549 ) <farrellj@nOspAm.gmail.com> on Sunday July 25, 2004 @10:58AM (#9794640) Homepage
        Green "Cradle to Cradle" manufacturing will only really become viable with the kind of molecular manufacturing [foresight.org] methods that mimick nature's bottom-up life-cycle. Once an object is no longer useful (and nobody wants to reuse it) we can spend some stored solar energy to disassemble it (if not exothermic) on a molecular scale for 100% recyclability (since atoms don't get "used up").

        Despite all the eco-crying, we'll be stuck with nasty top-down bulk-tech for a couple more years simply because it's cheaper for corps to externalize the environmental costs (esp. in 3rd world countries). With molecular nanotech, it's cheaper to be clean.

        --

    • Talking of apple, have a look at the comment they make on the Apple Wireless keyboard [idsa.org].

      It is now available with any new CPU purchase.

      OK, if the IDSA wants me to think highly of them, they could atleast try to figure out the difference between a CPU and a computer...
      • Apple themselves have a tendency to call actual boxes "CPU"s in their financial statements etc. (Where "CPU" actually means one box/computer despite the fact that the PowerMacs ship with dual processors/CPUs).
    • The texts describing each winner seem to be copied directly from the advertizing material. Take this clip as an example: Power Mac G5 ..."(making the G5 run three times quieter than previous Power Macs)."
      What does it really mean ? Let's say that the previous Mac were running at (wild guess) 35 dB. What is the sound level of the new one ? 35 / 5 = 7 dB ? NO!

  • Dupe? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Dexheimer ( 621938 )
    dupe. http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/04/06/25/2211224.s html?tid=107&tid=162&tid=187&tid=99
  • I have to say I'm glad to see the Zodiac on that list winning at least the bronze. I got mine last week and have been continually impressed with just how smooth the "fit and finish" have been. Aside from a small problem with a bend in the case near the sync port, the Zodiac is a great piece of electronics. Now, if they can only work out a better solution for the stylus, integrate a latch to the flipcover and make it firm (like the Newton 2x00, perhaps) and see what can be worked out with the somewhat tricky sync port connection, it'd be close to perfect.

  • Check out the circular printer in design explor (Score:5, Interesting)

    by uiil ( 413131 ) on Sunday July 25, 2004 @10:22AM (#9794467)
    link is here:
    URL:http://www.idsa.org/idea/idea2004/g257. htm

    very nonstandard solution

  • Apple Needs to Loose (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'd be more impressed with Apple if they'd lose a few of these design competitions by listening to the rest of us. OS X is arguably the best OS in existence today. But it's married to the most user-hostile hardware on the planet.

    Apple markets to narrow niches. The eMac, ugly and bulky, is great for schools worried about theft. The iMac, impossible to upgrade, is fine for those with tiny apartments and limited needs (an iPod accessory). The iBooks are a good deal for those who want a small laptop. The oth

    • Re:Apple Needs to Loose (Score:4, Insightful)

      by node 3 ( 115640 ) on Sunday July 25, 2004 @10:56AM (#9794631)
      So why aren't the people who said they were making a computer "for the rest of us," making a computer that the rest of us might want to buy?

      Maybe you aren't a member of "the rest of us". Part of the appeal of Apple hardware is that it just works. Plug it in, it works. Allow for easy modification and you open the door to things that don't work. Ok, power users still want that flexibility, so there's the PowerMac which lets you do just that.

      On the home user front, most of them just want their computer to run like a television--plug it in, connect a few well-defined cables, and you're up an running. Make it easy to open and expand (like the PowerMac) and people will start trying to plug in random cards from Office Depot or from their old PC and things will not work so well, if at all.

      You're not the rest of us, you're the elite. Get a PowerMac if you want OS X + modifiability.

      As for this:

      But it's married to the most user-hostile hardware on the planet.

      Your definition of "user" is definitely not the rest of us if you think their hardware is user-hostile.

    • not exactly (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bobalu ( 1921 )
      Well, my friendly neighborhood car dealer says "sometimes you just have to make a fashion statement", but maybe that's because he sells Porsches.

      I've been beating the hell out of a Powerbook (my first) since last October, and don't see anything particularly user-hostile about it. If you want a raw computing tool you can always strip the plastic off a case and let the wires hang out (or nail the motherboard to a perfboard), and in some cases that's appropriate. But as someone who's found the sharp edges on

      • Re:not exactly (Score:3, Interesting)

        by _Sharp'r_ ( 649297 )
        It's generally about control.

        Either giving up control to Apple to set everything for you and hoping they didn't screw something up or leave out anything you wanted, or about being willing to live with worse original choices in your hardware(assuming you aren't designing all your new systems from parts, like some of us do), but having the control to make sure the parts that are important to you personally can be done just the way you want because of the options available.

        Like anything else, it's a trade-of

  • My Favorite New Product Design Is... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dilvie ( 713915 ) on Sunday July 25, 2004 @10:26AM (#9794483) Homepage Journal

    The dyson vacuum cleaner [dyson.com].

    Seriously.

  • No usability here (Score:2, Interesting)

    by RZeno ( 599572 )
    While I always enjoy the IDSA awards, these are not awards that consider usability. These products are evaluated by simply having the judges examine the products and what the product creators say about how the products were made. To judge usability, you actually have to evaluate the product as used by the target audience. The judges do not do this, nor are the product creators required to.
    • To judge usability, you actually have to evaluate the product as used by the target audience.

      I'm sure the judges don't want the necessary lobotomies in order to do that.

      "What does this button labeled 'menu' do, does it give you a list of things you can do?".
    • I must add that even when the product seems promising when it comes to usability, it seems to ruin itself with a completely deranged description, like the Infinity Climber [idsa.org]. The product is basically a twisted circular loop (it has two twists hence it's not a Mobius strip). I concede that it's an inspired product because it presents a wide range of angles for kids to climb and it's very compact for the range of angles it provides. BUT I vehemently disagree with phrases like "presents an appearance of organic
    • Sure the Nokia probably won't win many usability prizes. But what about the iPod?
  • A new toy [idsa.org] for those with terminal boredom.

    And if you don't think you look odd [idsa.org] ehough walking in public.

    And a nice place to store CD/DVD [idsa.org] disks.
  • I'm VERY pleased, as an artist, to see the brush cleaner. The primary reason why I (and many other artists) do not like to use oil paints is that cleaning the brushes in solvent is a major pain in the butt, so seeing something that will do it for you opens up a whole new avenue.

    Good design also fills a need. In this case, it fills the need of low frustration.

    Now if someone will only invent a device that keeps the cats away from my easel...
  • I've said it before [slashdot.org], but I'll say it again (hey, if we're gonna have reposts of articles, why not of comments?)

    On the site, in the Design Explorations area, you'll find these [idsa.org] Nike golf tees. They look cool, and maybe they even have some good ideas (though if the ground is too frozen to drive a tee in, maybe it's not yet golf-season). But the quote about the "Mojo" tee is just frickin' priceless:

    "'The Mojo' tee has a liquid center brewed from turf from Scotland, sand from Pebble Beach, tears from the Nik

  • About those samsung monitors...
    Aren't those the models that are compatible
    with windows only?

    Samsung has some models that require you to
    run a windows app to change the monitor settings!

    This means: useless on Macs, Unix, etc, etc.

    I sure hope that they did NOT reward those
    worthless pieces of shit monitors.

    Bram
  • I really fail to see what is so exceptional about the Apple webcam or even the G5. Many vendors have been providing innovative cooling solution for years before the vented design of the G5 case - just look at 1U servers.

    As a side note, most of the home computer systems awarded by BW over the years are pretty but totally useless. The mice and keyboard are cool looking but so hopelessly minimalistic that it is unclear who could use them long term.

    • My guess is that you haven't really examined an Apple desktop machine closely. The attention to detail - for extending as well as just pure observation, it excellent. My main systems are Win/Lin, but I've had the opportunity to have an Apple around on occasion, and it's just a marvelous machine.

      Sure, others may do it, but nobody does it with quite the detail or panache that Apple does, on the scale that Apple does it.
  • Anyone notice Samsung's Smart Screen [idsa.org]?

    Sounds like a strange winner, but still, I'd like to see it/download it. Didn't find anything more than a press release blurb by googling for it.
  • ...a Sharper Image ad. This award looks a bunch of bullshit that is funded indirectly by the same companies that win. Just another thinkly veiled advertisement.
  • I want that font they use in their logo. Talk about elegant industrial design! That is one of the most striking I've seen since Frank Lloyd Wright used to design fonts.
    • If you didn't know it said "idea", would you (you being joe average seeing something written with those fonts) know what it said? I can recognize it, but only because I know it's supposed to be idea. I think it would take you awhile to be able to use it in a general text sense.
  • Check out the student section. [idsa.org] Obviously these kids know what a pain in the ass college is. Layers of disgusting crud building up on your unbagged trash cans? Just get the "Re-Bag" can which bags itself! Toilet clogged up with vomit and fecal matter? Just assemble your "UnBathroom" cardboard toilet and get back in business.

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