The Best Product Designs of 2006
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Jun 29, 2006 04:19 PM
from the shiny-toys-get-recognition dept.
from the shiny-toys-get-recognition dept.
conq writes "BusinessWeek has made available IDSA's annual list of the best designed products of the year." From the article: "The Talking Tactile Tablet system allows visually impaired individuals to access graphic imagery they otherwise would not be able to enjoy. Instead of using Braille, which the majority of visually impaired people do not read, users hear audio descriptions of each component of an image. Key considerations of the design were ease-of-use, ruggedness, cost and providing a pleasing aesthetic experience, namely how the product feels."
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Fleshlight (Score:5, Funny)
Ouch! (Score:3, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 12 2007, @09:41AM)
Re:As a firefighter... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://seenonslash.com/ | Last Journal: Friday May 11 2007, @04:02PM)
Usually just bad actresses with oversized breasts who are being chased by large men in ugly costumes.
Not new... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://somethingstirring.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Monday October 01, @05:09PM)
Furthermore, they award Lenovo for a cheeseball "all in one" design desktop when the tried and true iMac (flatscreen model) has been around for two years or more? Who are these people?
Before We Announce the Best of 2006... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/)
Re:Before We Announce the Best of 2006... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.fantasticdamage.com/)
And some highlights for me...
What does sadden me is that the most popular category for winners seemed to be office chairs. How amazingly boring.
Won't Work (Score:5, Funny)
What the.... ? (Score:5, Interesting)
So I guess I won't be seeing this list. But I have a pretty clear idea of a site that won't be making my own list of best designed anything ever...
Re:What the.... ? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://jrascher.wordpress.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday June 22 2006, @10:09PM)
Is it 2007 already? (Score:1, Redundant)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Surveillance Dome Camera??? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://seenonslash.com/ | Last Journal: Friday May 11 2007, @04:02PM)
I stopped scanning through the list after that.
Re:Surveillance Dome Camera??? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.houghi.org/)
As these are product DESIGN awards and not product INNOVATION awards, the answer is yes.
Talking Tablet (Score:1)
(http://insomnia.sf.net/ | Last Journal: Monday July 26 2004, @10:58AM)
A better way to link (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.houghi.org/)
That way you only need to edit the number at the when somebody mentions a number
Nutty Buddy?!?! (Score:2, Funny)
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/06/idea2006/
Wait, so Lenovo gets in the top 10... (Score:1, Insightful)
Is this supposed to be objective (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.shezphoto.com/)
Re:Is this supposed to be objective (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.designpoolstudio.com/)
Take the Reveal CT-80 on page 6.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/06/idea2006/
That explosive detection machine may not scan as many bags per hour as the competition, but it is intuitive, affordable, and miles ahead of the competition when you consider how the machine exists within an environment or how users interact with the hardware.
I'm not saying engineering and features are not important, I'm simply saying those products are reviewed on a number of levels.
In the case of that camera I wouldn't spend time harping on what isn't there. I'd concentrate on why a panel of seasoned industrial designers found value in that particular product.
well, based on Beta 3... (Score:1, Offtopic)
(http://tumbleweed.smugmug.com/)
I do like the 'Quick Tabs' feature, though - pretty slick.
Sweet Chair (Score:2, Interesting)
Dull (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://pied.nu/)
What are these designers afraid of? Are they scared of evoking an emotion? Even the house [marmolradzinerprefab.com] they laud is grey.
May we have some colour, please?
Number five is a crock (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://www.bcostello.com/)
"Understand that there is no glass, no prisms, NO MOVING PARTS, and no need for fans to provide heat dissipation. In addition, it runs on less than 1.5W at full power and less than 350mW while displaying typical video images (50% average pixel amplitude. There is also an infinite focus, meaning that no matter how close or far away, there are no optics to adjust for a clear picture"
It's more legible than the Samsung, uses less power, is smaller, and has INFINITE focus. It is however, just monochrome, but I would still enjoy an anywhere projector like that. I could use it for displaying video, cell phone video chat, pictures, movies, ads, reading... I want one!
More info on the touchgraphics tablet. (Score:3, Informative)
(Last Journal: Thursday May 04 2006, @10:41PM)
Right now our school employs a aide to copy graphical information onto paper with puff-ink or an embossing wheel. She traces the pictures and the ink expands and is "readable" by the visually impared kids we have, the wheel on the other hand leaves an impression in the paper that feels like braille.
Both these techniques lets them "see" the shape of squares, triangles, countries - even letters that you or I read. The biggest disadvantage is that the aide needs to be with the child as they learn to give a description of what is being seen. With this system and pre-prepared sheets the child can explore graphical images in their own way without another person being with them.
The web page is at http://www.touchgraphics.com/ttt.htm [touchgraphics.com] if anyone is interested in looking more.
By the way, for all the web developers out there, we find that many pages are not really accessable; tables for layout are generally a PITA to read, CSS works very nicely though.
Just like you create a web page then test it in Opera, FFx, Safari, Konqueror, Lynx and IE you should run it through a JAWS simulator. JAWS is the main Windows based text to speech screen reading tool many visually impared people use. JAWS Demo from Here [freedomscientific.com] FANGS is a firefox extension [standards-...ndards.com] that simulates what a visually impared person will see if they are using JAWS (FANGS is easier than JAWS for sighted people to use as you don't need to learn a heap of key bindings). Please add it to your arsenal of testing tools.
Hydrogen fuel cells out finally? (Score:1, Offtopic)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 06 2005, @10:30PM)
Personally... (Score:1, Redundant)
The coolest toys I've bought this year are:
http://www.pascalbardel.com/design/52.htm [pascalbardel.com]
http://www.downtube.com/catalog/product_info.php?
http://tinyurl.com/b6yo4 [tinyurl.com]
Entertaining ad-copy... (Score:1)
"Responding to the lifestyle cues of Generation Y users, designers imbued the vehicle with a counter-cultural, non-conventional aesthetic, finding inspiration in the insect world with its soft, rounded surfacing crossed with sharp edges." That reads like it was ripped straight from a sitcom script about marketers who "don't get it".
Visually impaired and illiterate? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.sumutia.com)
I hear cement cracking in China... (Score:1)
(http://murasame.ath.cx/ | Last Journal: Saturday August 07 2004, @01:14PM)
That commitment somehow got lost in the Congress bribery^W^W sale of IBM PCD.
No, by the looks of things, they want to turn IBM Thinkpads into another low-quality Dell. So far they've
been on the mark on reaching that goal ever since they were given access to the T43 and the T60 and the
literal cheapness (in the worst sense) of the construction is creeping in. The only thing that even saves
them is the part that IBM support has in cleaning up the mess.
The most that Lenovo has made has really been a knockoff, or designs on par with Sony. Looks good, crumbles fast.
Hover Creeper (Score:1)
(http://www.chrisbaldassano.com/)
Fun:
-Sledding
-Bobsled racing
-Back-to-the-future style hoverboard (though it might have trouble if you're standing up)
Serious:
-Getting across potential landmine areas - yes, you're still pushing against the ground, but your weight is distributed so it would probably be much safer
-The ultimate luggage - forget wheels, have your luggage (or backpack!) float behind you!
Is there a reason no one else is excited about this?