Good design has the power to attract people. You will find that even those designs that look good can make people pay more premiums. But truly good design is to use unique perspectives and wisdom to continuously correct various loopholes in life, provide beauty to life, and of course, it can also help the company build its brand. Designer Mitch Cowper said in the “Software Design Manifesto” published in 1990: “Designers are loved because they have something that people want.”
The people who pay the premium are not just ordinary consumers. More and more companies are willing to add design costs to their financial statements. They hire professional design consulting companies to buy dozens of jobs from the creative team, and they are even willing to reach sales. Strategic cooperation for profit sharing. Although companies such as Frog and Continuum told CBN Weekly that their Chinese customers still prefer to obtain design solutions with immediate effects, it is true that more and more companies regard design as more than products. Additional attributes-they prefer to solve the problem from the source and make their products unique.
People who create something different sometimes need to have some intuition of “why things are like this”: Why does the heater have to emit the smell of burning dust? Why does the headphone cord always go around in a mess? In the 1980s, British government researcher Jane Fulton Suri became famous for helping to improve lawn mowers and reducing consumer accidents (many people cut their toes because they couldn’t distinguish between handles and switches). But she still feels regretful: I always study things after they have been designed, but the problem has already occurred. Later, Su Rui met David Kelley, who had just started IDEO design company, and added her insight into the pre-design research and model making-this is the starting point for anthropologists to enter IDEO.
The best example of interpreting intuition is Steve Jobs. IDEO’s other founder, David Kelley’s younger brother Tom Kelley, told CBN Weekly: “Some people follow their instincts. If you’re another Steve, Just go ahead; but If you are not, you need some processes and methods.” In the 1990s, Samsung once set up an R&D center next to IDEO’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, to improve the innovation process together.
In fact, even Jobs followed the design process, his excellence is that he did not listen to the requirements of consumers, but to meet their potential needs. And he has never been the first developer of technology. On the contrary, he knows how to transform existing technologies into user-friendly products. He believes in the power of good things.
We are also trying to discover the good things and the logic behind the good things-this is the reason why CBN Weekly organizes the “This Design Is Amazing” selection every year. But compared with last year, two things are different this year.
First of all, we changed the selection rules. In order to expand the scope of selection of good designs as much as possible, we invite designers from independent and professional design companies to submit two design products that they think are great. The time to market will be within two years, regardless of the Chinese market; finally, We obtained 80 products (as you can see in the previous picture, the variety is really surprising), and then invited the management of the company with a high degree of market and user connection to serve as judges to select the three best designs. We also launched a poll on Sina Weibo. The best design selected by Weibo users, the Wacom Inkling digital drawing pen, coincided with the voting results of the management judges.
The interesting part of this rule is that the recommender of the product may not be the designer himself. “Global design competitions are all to give designers recognition, but you are not.” Continuum China CEO Chris Hosmer has always had doubts: “You know, this is very strange.” But when he saw products such as the Boeing 787 shortlisted , It’s nothing strange: it’s much more fun than a well-behaved award.
Another thing is that on November 30th, we and Frog co-organized a closed workshop to discuss China’s innovation trends. The participants were the judges of this award. We tried to find an effective brainstorming method-the correct thinking process may be more valuable than the results obtained-Frog’s creative director Brandon Edwards asked five questions, and then the whiteboard on the wall was full of possible problems Key words related to the question are posted N times by the judges. We write what we want to say on N stickers of different colors, and paste on the whiteboard. In the process of elaboration, papers with the same or opposite opinions were glued around the papers with core opinions. Finally, we found that even if opinions passed by in meetings in the past, they now have the effect of stimulating more imagination.
Some points of view jumped out of the vague perceptions in the past, such as “Enterprises should not only innovate, but also provide innovations that are closely related to consumers”, “Let products trigger discussion, otherwise they will be quickly overwhelmed” and “How to approach younger ones.” consumer”. Behind these viewpoints, there are some universally significant rules. We put these together into 100, which are related to taste, beauty, do & don’t, and natural laws.
You will also find some unexpected things, such as good design does not have to come from a professional designer. Similarly, we found many of his definitions of good design in Silicon Valley venture capitalist Paul Graham’s “Hacker and Painter”-many of which will be mentioned by professionals later. After reading his summary, you will find that it is actually a good idea to look at how good design is born from the perspective of a “layman”, especially such a smart layman.
Let’s start here.
100 THINGS ABOUT GOOD DESIGN
001
A good design is a simple design. From a mathematical point of view, less is more, and the evidence is every mathematical axiom. From the designer’s point of view, beauty relies on some carefully selected structural elements, rather than relying on decorations and piling up. The decoration itself is not a bad thing, it only becomes a bad thing when it is used to cover up the paleness of the structure.
002
A good design is a beautiful design. Mathematician Hardy said that ugly mathematics cannot survive in the world. Aircraft designer Kelly Johnson said: If the solution is ugly, there must be a better solution, but it has not been discovered yet.
003
Good design is inspiring design. Think about Lego bricks, which allow users to use them as they wish.
004
A good design is usually a somewhat interesting design.
005
Good design is hard design. Why do people think that wild animals are so beautiful? The reason is that their lives are very difficult, and there can be no extra parts in appearance.
006
A good design is a design that seems easy.
007
A good design is a symmetrical design.
008
Good design is a design that imitates nature. However, when this one is used to answer the question “Why don’t airplanes behave like birds?”, you can refer to the second: Humans have more interesting and beautiful solutions.
009
Good design is a kind of redesign.
010
A good design is a design that can be reproduced. You can understand it as allowing copycats, but not encouraging you to copy others.
011
Good designs are often peculiar designs. But this sentence should be followed by this sentence-“Maybe because I am not smart enough, I think they look strange. A dog sees a can opener and thinks it is a miracle. If I were a genius, I might think Euler’s formula (page 87) is a normal thing, and it’s not wrong. What’s so strange.”
012
Good designs come in batches. Why did the Renaissance appear in Florence in 1450? If Leonardo was born in Milan, what will history be like? Another example is that even if the contemporary population flows so drastically, genius projects still appear in a few centers: the Bauhaus School of Architecture in Germany, the Manhattan Project, The New Yorker Magazine, Lockheed’s Skunk Studio, and the 1980s Xerox Palo Alto R&D Center-Graham notes here: If you stay away from these centers, it will be difficult for you to get ahead.
013
Good designs are often bold designs. “I think it’s easier to find ugly things than you can imagine a beautiful thing. Most people who make beautiful results seem to be just trying to correct the ugly things in their eyes.”
014
The secret of good design: very strict taste, coupled with the ability to achieve that taste. It is not enough to tolerate ugliness. Only when you are very familiar with this field can you find out where you can improve. You must exercise yourself. Only after you become an expert in a certain field, you will hear a slight voice in your heart saying: “This solution is too bad, there must be a better choice.” Don’t ignore this voice, nurture them.
015
Oppose bad taste. Such as SUV. Even if it uses renewable clean energy, Graham’s view of it cannot be changed, because SUVs come from an obnoxious idea: how to make small trucks look more manly.
016
Support is concise. There is a joke that, before a hacker writes a program, he will at least figure out which language has the least typing workload in his mind, and then choose to use that language.
017
Do the design required by the user, not the “design required by the user”. The best work in any field cannot be made by someone who listens to users.
(001~017: Paul Graham’s summary of design)
018
There is a joke. Someone asked: “To improve a light bulb, how many designers do you need?” The designer said: “Wait a minute, do we have to improve on the light bulb?” Such questions sometimes make the questioner seem naive, but the facts are Quite the opposite: they are using an unconventional way to define the way they think about the problem. Design often starts here. But there may not be many people asking questions in large companies-this is why they need external brains. The follow-up story of the light bulb is that the last designer increased the amount of indoor light without changing the light bulb itself. He added a window on the top of the ceiling to let the sunlight in.
019
The “stupid questions” most large companies don’t ask themselves include: Why are we producing these things? Why do people need these products? What if we completely change the current product? Do you want to do something else? Maybe we should stop and provide a different experience for the current product? What will make my consumers happy?
020
Fear seems naive. Imagine in a large conference room where everyone nodded and said yes to the topic. You might be the only one who raised his hand and said, “Please wait a minute, it doesn’t make much sense.” Most people will choose to give up raising their hands in front of this imagination. In this case, it is easier to nod, but good design may disappear.
021
Ignore the disadvantaged groups. Elderly people may take the wrong medicine because they can’t read the small print on the medicine bottle. Arthritis patients may not be able to hold the plane for peeling carrots and potatoes. Most designs in the world don’t consider left-handed people. In fact, a good design should be used by people with different abilities without special adaptation and learning. This is the reason why IDEO, an innovative consulting company, visited people who used 7 kinds of toothpaste at the same time when doing a toothpaste project, and people who had no teeth at all.
022
Believe that design should be used to push the company to make more products, or to apply more new features to products. In fact, as you continue to expand your product range, you are also getting further and further away from your consumers. Compared with the nice saying “meet the different needs of the market,” large companies are actually using complex and repetitive product lines to hide their ignorance of consumers.
023
Focus group. This article is complementary to the previous item. Focus groups refer to large companies that seek to discuss the target consumer groups in order to understand what consumers are thinking, and try to find the direction of the design. But it is often the case that what they make is often the “design required by the user” rather than the “design required by the user”. To avoid this, big companies need someone who can really interpret consumers, not a bunch of consumer questionnaires.
024
Lenovo designers once designed a very beautiful stand for a certain series of all-in-one machines. But in the process of transportation, they found that this thing made the transportation cost from 4 dollars to 20 dollars per unit. When designing the new all-in-one desktop stand, the designer told Lenovo’s vice president Yao Yingjia: “This time I will consider saving transportation costs.”
025
survey. Like focus groups, the question of the questionnaire is not in itself, but people equate the results of the questionnaire with the design. The problem with the questionnaire is that the investigator is likely to understand the opinion of the respondent as he wants to hear it. Another habit of large conservative companies is that they feel more at ease with complex professional vocabulary, jargon, and armed design processes.
026
experience. Paula Scher, a graphic designer from five-star design, once said: “When I don’t know anything about a job, that’s when I do the best job.” She once outlined that for Citibank on a napkin. The famous umbrella icon. Schell explained his point like this: If you want to find ways to make things better, rich experience in those specific areas will hinder your success, because you know too well what will happen, and you know which methods will not work. .
027
Afraid to start again. Big companies are synonymous with efficiency. This not only means that interlocking processes make it difficult for small innovative ideas to come out, but also means that once a product enters the process, no one is willing or able to make it reinvented, “just like that. Forget it” will make a product full of bad design. To put it another way, if Jobs is not enough, Apple will not become an Apple.
028
Technology determines design. The application of computer chips in the late 1980s weakened the popularity of quartz watches. But the chip watches designed by large companies like Casio are a disaster for users: those watches that integrate functions such as radios, alarm clocks, and calculators often require users to constantly press and control the mini-keyboard. It is very easy for engineers to design, but it is very easy to use. It’s not friendly at all.
(018~028: Attention to the design department of large companies!)
029
Good-looking designs have a high chance of being used first. The design that is easy to use but not beautiful will not be accepted, so whether it is easy to use or not becomes unimportant. This may be cognitive bias, but it is also a fact.
030
The flaws are not concealed. People will be more tolerant of the lack of good-looking designs.
031
One way to judge a good design is that people will have feelings about the product, such as naming or nicking the existing name.
032
The American cognitive psychologist Donald Norman explained this problem from three levels in “Emotional Design”: Everyone’s cognition of design starts with perceptual response (I want to have it), and then The practical level (it’s not hard to use) and the brand effect level (ah, that’s about my personal image). Once the brand effect level is reached, people will be willing to pay more for this product or service.
033
Designer Yves Baial said: “If you can make people want to touch your product, your design is half the battle.”
034
When evaluating Mini Cooper, Japanese designer Naoki Sakai said: “Cars really have to be ruffian to be loved!” Another indicator that he judges whether car design is popular in the market is: Will girls like it? it.
035
The reason why home furnishing brand Alessi is popular is not that they apply advanced technology or expensive materials, but that they make their products look interesting, such as sometimes naive, sometimes pranks. CEO Alberto Alessi once concluded: “A good design must be able to move people, convey emotions, form images in people’s minds and bring a pleasant experience. The designer’s job is to use expressive language to show it. These things have expressive potential.”
036
The designer Buckminster Fuller once said: “When I start to study a problem, I never deliberately think about whether it is beautiful or not; but once I finish the work, if it doesn’t look good, I know I’m Failed.”
(029~036: The value of “good-looking”)
037
On the surface, design is a creative activity to solve a certain problem and requires a lot of thinking; “intuition” is an unconscious process, and people’s intuition is at work. But in fact, many designs or inventions are great precisely because they conform to people’s intuition, originate from and integrate into people’s lives. Doors and cabinet handles have never been the objects of people’s thinking. People naturally use them to open them, and they never need additional explanation.
038
A persuasive case: Tuburet M brand stackable wooden chair (Stacking Stool). It is solid, comfortable, smooth and elegant, can be stacked, and is shaped by only one piece of wood, without any extra elements.
039
But good design does not mean blindly subtraction. John Meida, author of “The Law of Simplification” and dean of the Rhode Island School of Design, believes that the important principle of design simplicity is to remove uselessness and increase meaning. Another finding is: “Every part of a good design is a combination of familiar and unfamiliar things. Familiar things attract people to use, and unfamiliar things keep them in it.”
040
Another simple design. Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa once designed a wall-mounted CD player for MUJI. Its appearance resembles an old-fashioned exhaust fan hung on the wall. A round CD disc is embedded in the middle of the square base, and only a pull rope hangs from the middle of the base. Anyone who sees this CD player will pull the string subconsciously, and melodious music will come from the rotating CD box. This design is derived from people’s memories of old-fashioned fans and electric lights in childhood. “My ideal is not to need instructions to tell people how to use it. It must allow people to intuitively operate it naturally.”
041
There is one thing in common between remote control design, road sign design and martial arts: the more things you can choose, the longer the response time. Needless to say, the buttons on the remote control are more complex and the more road signs are, the more likely it is that the driver is difficult to judge.
Correspondingly, the more fighting skills a martial artist knows, the longer it will take to punch.
042
Google’s search box is one of the best representatives of concise interactive design. Although the founder, Sergey Brin, said that the source of this design was only because the company could not afford to hire a serious designer at the beginning of its establishment, but to this day, Google has not changed that small box.
043
“What have you done in your life?”
Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake: “Cut a piece of cloth.”
044
Another feature of Lego: This is probably the least manual combination toy in the world. Those relatively uneven surfaces and smooth sides make people naturally want to embed one block on another block.
045
The tablecloths of first-class restaurants are always white. This is the medium through which the store conveys the level of quality service to customers-dark or fancy tablecloths are easier to hide stains.
046
The most important thing that interaction designer Steve Krug discovered about web design is that people are actually scanning web pages, not reading them. When most web designers think that they need to carefully arrange the sections of text and images for users to read, most users actually just scan it in a hurry and skip it after grasping the key information-so the first element of web design is not to increase the colorfulness Function, but to remove interference.
047
The core principle of a good logo design is: only one element needs to be remembered. The best example is the arrow hidden in the FedEx logo. Once you understand it, you will never forget it.
(037~047: The more concise, the smarter)
048
Design does not necessarily serve the niche market.
The designer Yves Baial and MIT professor Nicholas Negreponte hope to design a $100 computer for children in poor areas, but they don’t want to design a cheap product. So Nicholas Negreponte has two equations to describe his choice: cheap components + cheap labor + cheap design = cheap laptop; integrated technology + advanced manufacturing + mass production + cool design = inexpensive laptop.
Finally, he found some first-class engineers in Silicon Valley, and hired the design company Continuum to make early plans and product prototypes. These people get together, and if they don’t look at technology, their most important discovery is actually “what is something we don’t need on a laptop”, such as the Numlock key that Beal hates, a fan, and even a power supply—they use it in the end. The old-fashioned hand-cranked charging method like the yo-yo is used to power the notebook, and of course there is solar panel as the second energy source.
In the end, this product made a sensation at the 2007 CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Although Intel and Microsoft still laughed at how strange it looked, they also began to develop low-cost computers. The reality of the notebook world changed suddenly.
049
Good design does not necessarily aim at new things. On the contrary, according to the Japanese designer Kenya Hara: “Creativity is not to surprise people with its new forms and materials, but to surprise people from the seemingly ordinary life. Continuing to develop these ideas is the real design.”
050
Good design does not necessarily come from a designer.
Nowadays, the paper cover that is set up to prevent hot drinks from being hot on your hands actually comes from a person named Jay Sorensen. In 1991, he wrapped a paper coffee cup in a napkin, but it was too slippery to grasp, and hot coffee spilled on his knees. So he designed the Java Jacket coffee cup cover, after years of evolution, it has become the paper cover you see. (By the way, Costa coffee takeaway paper cups are a good design to use the undulating folds of the corrugated surface for heat insulation.)
051
Designers do not need to be just a designer, in fact, they should be T-shaped talents. This is a theory from the design company IDEO. They believe that on the one hand, designers should be strong, just like the vertical in the letter T; on the other hand, they should have extensive exposure to various knowledge and fields, just like the horizontal. A designer with growth potential should be able to change from T in size 8 to T in size 32, and a good design company should be “TTTTTTTTTTTTT”.
052
The design that helps people achieve the most ideal performance is not necessarily their favorite design. You may not even know the existence of the Dvorak keyboard. This keyboard has been invented for more than 50 years, and it has been tested to increase the speed of typing by more than 30%, because it is designed for this purpose: grouping according to the degree of common use of the word keys , And then position the word keys according to the situation of typing with hands. But it has never been popular, and vendors still use Qwerty keyboards.
053
Even if you are prepared, consumers may not necessarily tell the truth (they didn’t mean it). In 1994, Procter & Gamble hoped that Continuum Design Company could help it find a more time-saving and labor-saving way to clean floors. Continuum designers found through field research that most people wipe the floor with a rag before mopping the floor, and people spend almost as much time cleaning the mop as cleaning the floor. In addition, the cleaning process is full of dust and dirt, so people will wear old clothes when doing the cleaning-but the interesting thing is that because they know that Continuum will come to investigate, they have wiped the floor beforehand to show their hospitality. The above results were discovered after Continuum discovered this habit.
054
Good design does not necessarily make people fall in love at first sight
The main reason is that human beings have instinctive doubts about strange things. Herman Miller’s Aeron chair has been firmly occupying the position of “the most healthy and comfortable work chair in human history” since its introduction in 1994. But you can’t find a straight line on the Aeron seat. It looks like the exoskeleton of a huge prehistoric insect. The general response of consumers at the beginning was “sitting is comfortable, but it’s too ugly.” But Herman Miller decided to trust his instincts. Columnist Malcolm Gladwell’s thinking about this is: “We can’t tell through consumer feedback that a product is really bad, or whether it’s just inconsistent with people’s pre-determined impressions and is therefore badly reviewed.”
055
Regarding the logic of social interaction design: Don’t think that people become completely different creatures when they come online.
The story of Google+’s group model (Group) goes like this: Paul Adams is now the global brand manager of Facebook. Before joining Facebook, he used to be one of the user experience researchers in Google’s social business department. In the past 5 years, he has been in the UK, the US, India, and China, and then he discovered that people have actually rebuilt the virtual world. They almost constructed their virtual social network in accordance with the social behavior patterns in reality. In many cases, these networks even follow the rules of the ancient villages.
“We are accustomed to dividing the people around us into separate circles.” There is a very close core circle with less than 10 people, and the upper limit is a weak circle of 150 people. “A person can remember the name and face up to 150 friends at most.” Paul said, “In ancient villages, once the population reached 150, the patriarch would divide the village into two.” What’s even more amazing is that he Found that on Facebook, people basically copied this law. In Facebook, there are generally 8 people in each group, and the number of weak relationship circles is basically around 130 to 170. And it is not entertainment stars or opinion leaders that connect the various circles of relationships, but ourselves. “Celebrities can increase the attention of a thing, but it is the people in the core circle that really affect our final decision.” Paul said, “This means all social networking sites, or all businesses related to social behavior, including advertising and marketing. And so on, it must be designed around people’s social circles.”
056
Good design does not necessarily save you time.
If the good design of the recent popular application Pinterest also relies partly on the exquisite images it presents, the closed social application Path2.0 that has just returned is entirely based on interactive design (think of the small trembling icons that were thrown out all at once) Conquered a group of users, including those who abandoned them before. Good UI navigation is clear and will not allow users to waste time figuring out “what is this”, but it does make users addicted to it. For example, Pinterest’s waterfall-style auto-loading menu makes people want to see “below” What’s the impulse?
(048~056: There are no certain rules for design)
057
Fibonacci sequence. That is, each number in a sequence is the sum of the first two numbers. A mathematical principle often used by designers. This sequence of numbers is often found in nature, such as the number of petals, the number of vortex nebulae in the Milky Way, and the number of bones in human palms. Because of this, many people think that the design using this sequence is inherently beautiful.
058
The golden section law. A law closely related to the Fabnacci sequence. Dividing any number in the Fabnacci sequence by the next number will result in a result similar to the golden ratio. Things that comply with the golden section law include: Parthenon, Nautilus, Leonardo’s famous “Vitruvian Man”, Coca-Cola cans and Apple iPod player.
059
The law of thirds. That is, Jiugongge, the main element of the design is placed at an intersection in the grid, and the result is often considered to be interesting or aesthetic. It is worth mentioning that this positional relationship is still similar to the golden section law (for example, 2/3=0.666, while the golden ratio is 0.618)
060
The law of symmetry. The brain thinks that a design with a smooth, curvilinear or symmetrical appearance is a beautiful design. Research by Moshe Bar, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, proves this point. If people see designs with rough edges and sharp contours, the cerebral cortex will accelerate and cause anxiety. These seemingly chaotic designs make people feel uneasy. The reason is because “the brain does not like uncertainty.”
061
Van Restorff Effect (von Restorff Effect). Compared with ordinary objects, this effect is to increase the object’s special memory. The famous “I love New York” pattern was made by designer Milton Glaser during the American recession in the 1970s. He interspersed the heart-shaped pattern among the letters, and this pattern is still popular all over the world. The secret of this design is that the brain captures different things in a bunch of common things.
(057~061: Learning from nature)
062
In 1992, when Pfizer was clinically testing a new drug for the treatment of angina pectoris, it was discovered that the drug was not only useless for angina pectoris, but also caused gastrointestinal problems, back pain and male erections. If Pfizer stagnates, then Viagra, one of the most successful drugs in human history, will not come out.
063
Most people may not be able to imagine that our usual yellow post-it notes actually originated from the glue products that failed in 3M’s laboratory. In the 1960s, Dr. Spencer Silver, a scientist, accidentally discovered a glue with unusual properties. Its stickiness could not last for a long time, and the glued things could be torn off later. This invention was subsequently shelved for nearly 10 years. Until 1974, when 3M engineer Art Fry attended the service, he found that the note clipped in the songbook as a mark often fell off when turning the page. If there is a glue that is a little sticky but not too sticky, it can be repeated. It’s perfect to tear off without damaging the paper. So Spencer’s adhesive came in handy. In 1980, post-it notes were born. This little yellow sticker has revolutionized the way humans communicate information. The post-it notes worth $1 billion subsequently became 3M’s most valuable asset.
064
The LOMO camera was originally a mini camera used by Soviet spies. In the era of film machines, LOMO was barely able to make do with it. After entering the digital age, LOMO is close to being eliminated.
In 1991, two fine arts students in Vienna accidentally discovered that the colors of photos taken with this camera were brighter than those of ordinary cameras, and the surroundings would appear much darker than the middle, forming a special “tunnel effect”. They immediately Attracted by this style. After that, they formed the LOMO Photography Fans Association to gather photography fans who like the “tunnel effect”. Subsequently, the Photographic Association even persuaded the Leningrad Optical Instrument Factory to continue producing this camera. The meaning of “LOMO” has also changed from the abbreviation of Leningrad Optical Instrument Factory to “Let Our Life be Magic and Open”.
065
As early as 1916, in order to stand out from the crowd, Coca-Cola proposed a harsh rule when it initiated the bottle design tender: not only to distinguish it from other beverage bottles on the market, but also to let it be broken regardless of day or night. Consumers immediately recognized that it was Coca-Cola. In the end, a company named Root Glass Company fulfilled this requirement and allowed Coca-Cola’s sales in 1920 to reach 7 million bottles per day.
066
How many times have you seen people ignoring the paved paths and finding other ways? Architect Louis Kahn was inspired by this. When designing the green space for a college, he did not make any artificial markings. It just allowed people to cross freely on it, and finally added a path in accordance with pedestrians’ walking habits.
067
Another interesting story of watch design is that when watches have regarded precise timing as a common thing due to various technologies, the quartz watch market has fallen into a vicious circle of low profits. But Swatch looks at the problem from a different perspective. It does not use the watch as a timing tool, but a fashion accessory. Cooperation with various fashion and printing designers has made Swatch shine, and watches have since entered the fast-moving consumer goods field.
068
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma believes that good car design, like architecture, is a balance between external static form and internal power. For architecture, the appearance is good, but the inner part has to convey a moving experience. The inner part of the car is the driving force experienced when driving. Both flourish because of balance.
069
Storyboards used to be one of the methods used by Pixar Animation Studios to create animated films. In a meeting, they will show the initial idea of a story in the form of a comic strip on the storyboard and tell others to listen to it. Kevin Grignon is an IBM senior user experience designer. He and his team are applying this form to user research reports, turning those boring technical terms and numbers into a story with characters and details. “Plato once said that those who can tell stories will rule the world,” Kevin said. “Turning lists and data into stories can convey information more vividly, especially to express the emotions of users and their situations. It is very helpful for design.” Professor PJ Stapper of TU Delft University in the Netherlands is also an advocate of this method. “The storyboard combines text and pictures, so that people can have an immersive feeling about abstract things, and you can even point your finger at any of the pictures to express your opinion.”
070
John Plunkett, creative director of Wired magazine when it was launched, said: “We want to deliberately avoid design techniques that many contemporary magazines use. I still don’t understand why most magazines look the same. We especially want to ignore that. Agreed on the commonly known rules: good design = meticulous, tasteful, elegant, and restrained. I think the definition of good design should depend on the content of the design. For Wired magazine, a sense of life is more important than meticulous.”
071
Xerox designer David Liddle believes that the development of science and technology can be divided into three stages: “enthusiasts” (relying on code to control computers), “professionals” (to tell the difference between the three types of CPUs) and “ordinary consumers” (just whether they can Play Angry Birds). But the best observation at these stages is not the computer, but the remote control. “Those manufacturers introduced remote controls with more than 30 buttons. This complicated design has no advantages.” The design of the future must be simple because they hide complicated things behind them.
(062~071: Another angle of thinking)
072
IDEO’s design logic: good design should be the combination of commercial value, human needs and technical applications.
073
Information visualization. Information is cheap, the point values. Inforgraphic, which uses a friendly graphical interface to sort out information, provides ordinary people with another perspective on the world. “Information visualization is actually telling the story behind the data and revealing the hidden facts.” Visual information designer David McCandless said.
074
Invisible interactive interface. The newly released concept camera Air Clicker consists of two rings, one worn on the thumb and the other on the index finger. The small ring worn on the thumb has the switch button and the camera lens, and the double ring worn on the index finger has a tension sensor. . Air Clicker is then connected to the smartphone via Bluetooth, so there is no need for a camera and various unnecessary components, and you can take pictures at will with your fingers. The interface of the machine disappeared, all you need to move is your finger.
075
Design experiences not just products. Larry Kelly, president of the American Deblin Company, believes that superficial product design pays more attention to attraction and purchase, but generally seldom considers use and other expansion behaviors. But in fact, the next steps are the key to making consumers loyal.
(072~075: Good design, multi-dimensional)
076
Develop the entire product strategy based on user needs. At one time, Apple was also an engineering technology-oriented company. Most products were developed in line with technical feasibility to ensure timeliness; but the Think Different principle after Jobs’ return changed the company’s product development steps to design, development, and mass production. If it cannot support consumer demand, there is no need for development.
077
Hide complexity in places where users don’t know. There is a thin slit between the Macbook Air screen and the keyboard, in order not to block the heat dissipation slot when opening, and affect the heat dissipation efficiency; the aluminum alloy shell is pasted with a heat dissipation film made of graphite to allow the heat to spread out; four huge blocks The battery board was placed on the end away from the touchpad to prevent the heat from getting hot.
078
The difference between First to do it and First to do it right. Touch screen technology, sliding to unlock and Siri are not Apple’s first. Most of these technologies have gone through a long development process before Apple adopted them, but they are still considered to be a research project in a secret laboratory or a scene in a science fiction movie. Until Apple put them in the iPhone, something that can be carried in anyone’s pocket. The key to Apple’s success is that they know how to hide advanced technology behind the daily design, so that people can get started with almost no learning.
079
Good craftsmen will not use rotten wood on the back of the cabinet. The true evolution of Apple products needs to be taken apart to see. The new Mac Mini blends inside and out, while the old shell looks just a cover. The same is the difference between iPhone 3 and 4 generations. Jonathan Ive said: “I can always understand the beauty of things made by hand. What really matters is the thoughts you put on them. What I don’t see is the sloppyness in a product.”
080
Material guide form. The Macbook uses a one-piece molding process, thanks to Apple’s reprocessing of aluminum; iPhone4 has 3 black dividing lines on the side of the fuselage, which are also the antenna of the mobile phone, because they are directly injection molded on the metal strip, and the metal strip Maintained a nearly seamless fit. These are all products that need to be touched to feel the excellent design. “The best design does not separate form and material. We experience and explore materials, learn characteristics and craftsmanship, which are extremely important in our work.” Jonathan Ive said in an interview with Core77.
081
Push uncompromising to the extreme. About 5 years ago, Apple planned to add a small green light to indicate the working status of the camera on the new generation of Macbooks. Because light cannot penetrate metal, this looks incredible. Later, Apple discovered that a laser could be used to make a small hole in the aluminum case of the Macbook to allow light to pass through, but it was impossible to detect with the naked eye. But such a laser sold for about $250,000 at the time. As you can guess, Apple eventually persuaded the seller to sign an exclusive agreement and purchased hundreds of units.
082
Should be fun! It’s hard to explain the meaning of the crying face that appeared when the iPod went wrong: the corners of the mouth were drooping, and the eyes became two small crosses. They also added a few thin lines to the notepad app that came with it to make the notepad look like a few pages of paper have been torn off, although you may not have noticed it.
083
Jobs hated the keyboard design in Apple products the most. “What’s the use of the F key!” Jobs once roared at an exchange meeting while taking the key to pry away each F key. He didn’t feel calm until he finished the prying. Apple has always been a fan of Occam’s razor theory, “If it’s not necessary, don’t add entities.”
084
Create an experience. iPod+iTunes allows users to get rid of low-quality pirated music. iPhone+App Store allows users to get far more than a mobile phone. In fact, even if the business model is not considered such a grand issue, the experience of Apple products can be seen from a charger interface. come out. The charging port of the Macbook is a magnet, so that even if the wire is caught by an obstacle, it will not pull the entire notebook down. This inspiration is said to come from a certain Japanese rice cooker.
085
A leader, a vision. We commemorate Jobs.
086
Wacom Inkling Digital Drawing Pen (Business Value Award, Popular Value Award First Place)
You no longer need to switch back and forth between the draft paper and the computer when you are designing. It can synchronously convert the handwriting into a digital signal, so the image drawn by the paper and pen will be automatically stored in a digital format, and a USB cable can be transferred to the computer. Synchronous modification. It is possible to record inspiration anytime, anywhere, and at the same time help users find the comfortable touch of a real pen and paper.
087
Dyson Hot heater (3rd place in Business Value Award)
It uses a shape similar to a bubble blowing stick used by children and the patented air multiplication technology, which can increase the hot air generated by 5 times, and the hot air emitted will not exceed the ignition point of dust. The whole machine has no moving parts, and it will automatically shut down after knocking over. There is a magnet on the top of the ring of the body, which can connect the remote control to the machine itself (this remote control design is considered to be the best magnet design after the iPad2 Smart Cover) .
088
Boeing 787 Dreamliner (commercial value award tied for first place)
The basic design idea of this model is to provide economical and feasible direct flight services for non-hub cities and provide more convenience for passengers. A large number of carbon fiber synthetic materials are used instead of aluminum alloys, and the largest portholes in commercial models, improved air filtration systems, more natural cabin pressurization systems, and superior cabin sound insulation systems are used. In terms of energy, compared with other jet airliners of the same size, fuel consumption is 20% lower. (You should have seen more detailed content in the previous environmental protection column.)
089
Philips Convenience reading light (2nd place in the Popular Value Award)
This product integrates LED lighting on an acrylic board. When it is turned on, it will only illuminate the pages of the book, not the surrounding environment, and it will not affect other people even if it is close. Also because of the material, it is very light to carry, but the only problem is that it has not solved the damage caused by heavy objects or beatings.
090
Sinch headphone cable organizer (3rd place in Popular Value Award)
Sinch is a creative product used to protect earphones. It can store the earphone cable and prevent tangling and knotting. The band of glue material encapsulates the magnet inside, and the band can be installed on mobile phones and other devices with the help of earphone plugs. The user can wrap the headphone cord around the strap for protection. If you don’t need the earphones temporarily, you don’t need to pull out the plug, just use Sinch to store it. When you want to use the headset, just pull it gently and the headset cable will automatically untie.
“CBN Weekly” talked to various design consulting companies, topics including “what do you think is good design”, “how to look at the current situation and development of Chinese design” and “innovative trends in 2012”.
Continuum China CEO Chris Hosmer
091
Chinese consumers attach great importance to cost performance. This is not just to save money, but they feel that the money is “worth”. Smart companies know how to use innovation and design to cater to this philosophy, so that products increase “value” instead of fighting price wars or sacrificing quality. This is the reason why Chinese design will rise.
092
Many companies and organizations regard design as part of their business, and everyone is encouraging innovation, experimentation, and risk-taking. There is only one thing to note, that is, understanding the methodology of design and applying the design well in actual situations are two different things. Successful companies tend to work on both. Many people think that if you know the process and tools, you’re done.
093
The design that makes our digital life more convenient will have a huge impact in 2012. These designs can make the technology simpler, easier to use, maneuverable, and fun. NFC (Near Field Communication) technology may replace wired connections between commonly used devices. This technology allows us to redefine the way humans interact with the world around them in the future.
094
Good design makes the existing world more humane. For me, human touch is the simplest word used to describe something that is meaningful, satisfying, easy to use, beautiful, can solve problems quickly, and is a profitable word.
Mario van der Meulen, Creative Director of Frog Design
095
China’s design industry is currently facing the problem of talent structure. At present, many local designers are still following the footsteps of their Western predecessors, imitating or inheriting the styles of Western designers they admire. This is not the true meaning of “Chinese Design”.
Ian Lee, Deputy Creative Director of Frog Design & Zhang Ying, General Manager of Asia Pacific
096
Many practitioners and customers have quickly accepted design research and innovative practices, but they have not formed a long-term sustainable business model. Many international brands have moved their past value chains directly to China. Therefore, the difficulty lies in how to make the global headquarters understand that the development of innovation in China under a new platform and technological background is a completely different matter from other countries or regions.
097
The Chinese company Lihaier has a lot of potential. This company is very good at using their huge distribution and service network to provide a zero-distance customer experience. This is very competitive in some third- and fourth-tier cities. The other is China Mobile (Weibo). This operator is now standing at an inflection point. They need to become a company that provides more than just data and voice services. In fact, they have been forced to a corner and have to start innovation.
Zhou Yi, founder and design director of Guide Design
098
The boundaries between different design disciplines began to blur, and there was a trend of convergence. This is driven by demand. Now companies hope to find comprehensive design methods to solve the problems of brand, market, users and other aspects. This demand drives different design professions to accelerate the integration speed, and the generalized design consulting can better reflect the value.
099
In 2011, there are indeed not many commendable designs and innovations at the narrow product level, but innovations in service models and business models are endless, such as WeChat. They are things born for this era.
100
A book and a documentary.
