Apple product design

messiah

How would you rate Apple's product design?



Bearing in mind that you can't pick up an iPod without leaving fingerprints all over it, and it's impossible to carry around without scratching it; the white keyboards and mice are dirty as soon as you touch them, and show all the dirt and crumbs; the crystal clear plastics show fingerprints all over them and titanium scratches so easily, as does the material that the iBook is made from.



I'd say that their product design is amongst the best in the world, but that they deliberately pick materials that look tatty quickly - a kind of built-in visual obsolesence.



Please discuss...

macsrgood4u

Wash your hands more frequently.

cubedude

Not sure if it's relevant, but once I saw a very small spider crawling inbetween the clear plastic and white plastic of my Cube.

roduk

Well, if you actually use your Apple products, what do you expect? They're mainly designed to stand in the corner of a room and look cool.



Seriously though, sometimes form does seem to win out over function, the 'hockey puck' mouse being a good example. I think Apples product design does support a whole cottage industry geared towards helping people protect the looks of their investments though, whether it's carry cases for the laptops or mini jackets for the iPod. As it stands, the Titanium Powerbook isn't that portable, in the sense that you can't simply pick it up with one hand and carry it around without fear of scratching the paint, or flexing the body, but that hasn't stopped it being a huge success.



[ 03-03-2003: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>

messiah

I don't know, everybody keeps going on about how fantastic their [Apples] product design is... but it breaks the first rule of product design - the product should be practical.



What use is a portable music player that you can't slip into a pocket without worrying about it all the time? My iPod got scratched the second day I had it. I slipped it into the pocket of my fleece. A fleece lined pocket for Christs sake! Or a notebook that gets scratched everytime you lay it down on a desk or cradle it in your lap.



I think Apple's product design peaked with the clamshell iBook. Plastic with a frosted finish and rubber sections. Beautiful! These things should be tools, not untouchable works of art.

overhope

[quote]Originally posted by CubeDude:

<strong>Not sure if it's relevant, but once I saw a very small spider crawling inbetween the clear plastic and white plastic of my Cube. </strong><hr></blockquote>



There was a great big one in mine the other day: I cooked the dude by running fractals for an hour.



I have to admit to being totally paranoid about my 12" Powerbook, but this new anodized aluminium surface doesn't even seem to attract dirt. And my iPod (number 2 after the hard drive died in number 1) now lives in a case, and is scratch-free.

ghost_user_name

I like Apple's design, but sometimes I really wish it were more polished and professional looking. More modern. I really dig the PowerBook looks right now, but the desktops... really not so much.



I'm a big <a href="http://www.bang-olufsen.com"; target="_blank">Bang & Olufsen</a> fan, and I absolutely love their industrial design. Good Danish design, can't beat it

muah

I saw a show about Frank Lloyd Wright once that talked about how poor some of his designs were functionally. Specifically his Lillypads office building. The roof leaked constantly, and had a bunch of other issues that made it difficult. Ironically the owner and workers said that there was no other place they would rather be. They enjoyed the aesthetic qualities so much that they were willing to put up with garbage cans on their desks whenever it rained.

overhope

I think a lot of that was down to having designs that were somewhat in advance of the materials technology of the time.

mr. macintosh

Uhm, Apple does have the best product design of all computer manufacturers in the world, period.

eman

[quote]Originally posted by Mr. Macintosh:

<strong>Uhm, Apple does have the best product design of all computer manufacturers in the world, period.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Maybe best looking, but the day I got my iPod it get scratched. Not just one scratch- many scratches. All I did was put it down on my bed at first and it got scratched. That's not good design. That's just good looking design.

tmp

[quote]Originally posted by Overhope:

<strong>I think a lot of that was down to having designs that were somewhat in advance of the materials technology of the time.</strong><hr></blockquote>



Yes, a lot of FLW's designs exceeded the technology of the time. His roof were notorious for leaking. Because it was decided to use sand from the site in the concrete (to make the house look "of the hill") the <a href="http://www.ennisbrownhouse.org/"; target="_blank">Ennis-Brown House</a> is crumbling, and the combination of FLW's over-reaching engineering and a mistake by the contractor pouring the concrete, the famous cantilevers at <a href="http://www.savewright.org/chat/wwwboardS/messages/239.html"; target="_blank">Fallingwater</a> had to be shored up, then strenghtened from within.



I've only seen Fallingwater in pictures, and I have toured the Ennis-Brown house more than once. I would happily put up with the failures of the reality of these buildings to be able to live in one of them. In a small way, I feel the same way about my Apple products- my iBook needs cleaning more often than the wintel box I use at work (or is it just that I care that it's pristine loveliness is maintained?) and my iPod resides is a plastic case. The joy I get from the beauty of the design and elegance of the interface more than makes up for the inconvenience I may have from time to time.



I'll be the one sitting in the living room of the Ennis-Brown house listening to my iPod under the umbrella.





[ 03-03-2003: Message edited by: tmp ]</p>

idude

I'm not real sure why you guys keep going on about the iPod scratching. What do you expect? It's an MP3 player for god's sake, not a Monet. You are SUPPOSED to throw it in your pocket and drop it and run with it. That's what it is made for. At first I was upset my iPod was scratched, but the minute I realized how awesome a product it was, I forgot about all the petty things. Apple has hit a perfect equilibrium between form and function. Unless you are putting your macs on pedestals, you should realize this and stop bitching. Afterall, even with a scratch, your mac STILL beats the crap out of all the PCs in the world.

luca

"All customers of Apple Computer, Inc, shall wear white gloves all the time except when washing hands or bathing." - Steve Jobs



Not really, but it seems like it. I still really like my iBook even though it's absolutely covered with tiny scratches. It still looks perfect if viewed from some angles, but if you look at it other ways you see everything.



I think the black plastic of the PowerBook G3s and the brushed aluminium of the new PowerBooks are the best case materials Apple has right now. Professional looking, don't scratch or gather dirt/scratches/fingerprints, etc. Although the rubberized center portion of the older PowerBooks tended to scratch easily.



As a comparison, the Nomad Jukebox Zen is completely covered in brushed aluminium. I don't really want one but it would prevent scratches.



A big problem is with the Pro Keyboard, how it gathers bugs, dirt, hairs, etc, and it's nearly impossible to remove. Annoying. If it was a solid color, it wouldn't look as good but it wouldn't look all gross and dirty after a couple weeks.



Finally, the drive doors on Quicksilver PowerMacs. They require you to mod the drives if you want to put something other than an Apple OEM drive in there, because they made it pretty by using black drives with very slim trays.

overhope

[quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

<strong>

All I did was put [my iPod] down on my bed at first and it got scratched.</strong><hr></blockquote>



EmAn, you're gonna have to give up sleeping on that bed o' nails, dude...

<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

stunned

Despite it being scratch prone, the iPod is very durable though. My has withstood some falls and shock, and it is still functioning great.