Good Design

The Good

Below are some examples of good product design

1972 Datsun 510 -

This was my first car in high school. Bought it for $1000 in 1981. Years ago it was highly regarded as a cheap, sporty car, the "poor man's BMW". It was incredibly reliable, fun to drive, easy to work on, and parts were cheap. I re-built the engine myself, and added endless modifications. It was easy to incrementally add more high-performance components as desired.

Sonicare Electric Toothbrush-

I had been interested in an electric toothbrush for a while. I was skeptical that a battery operated toothbrush would work well or last a long time. I bought a Sonicare toothbrush and it's worked great for about 5 years now. It had a useful startup mode to get me used to the vibration for the first few uses. Since then it's been trivial to use, rock solid, and a high quality product. Recommended.

Automatic soap dispensers-

I love automatic water faucets for the obvious design reason that they stay clean and minimize wasted water. My only beef is that it's not obvious how to turn them on. So when I saw automatic soap dispensers, I was very intrigued. It's an obvious idea, but something I assumed was too complex to be practical. But someone figured it out. Picture below. On the plus side, these always seem to work. This is surprising, given there is a viscous fluid involved. Note there are many components, and of course there is a battery required to drive the mechanism.

Thomas Moser Custom Furniture Makers-

I saw this furniture maker on This Old House, and I can't stop thinking about them. Look at these:

Ähh, they're gorgeous. The lines, aesthetics, etc. Of course, they are insanely expensive. This chair is $3200 and the ottoman is $950. I ordered the catalog just to be able to look at the pieces and drool.

http://www.thomasmoser.com/home/index.php

iTunes-

Everyone talks about the iPod as a great design example, and I agree, but I actually like the iTunes application as well, if not more. This is great software.

What do I like about it?

• Reliable operation, particularly pleasing that it works so well in Windows implementation.
• Very good UI, most features are obvious
• Encourages me to buy things but it's not annoying
• New versions are frequent and new features are intriguing. I look forward to patches. That's really something.

• Updates should be more automatic. Seems to be improved in latest 7.0 version.
• I have experienced several voice glitches in songs, and I think it's because default import parameter optimizes for speed and doesn't ensure error correction. Dumb.
• It gets hairy if you have multiple installations, synching issues, backup issues, etc.

Ok, this is a small set that I thought you'd enjoy. What do these products have in common?

• Compelling features
• Easy to use, features reveal themselves as needed
• Strong focus on aesthetics, feel
• Products should feel "simple", even if they are complex internally

Next time I'll describe some products I'm not so hot on. Cheers,

Wayne

What don't I like about it?

Comments

[Oscarlee]

I think you will find the Ames chair more confortable. Don't get a cheap imitation.

[Electric(toothbrush ratings) Erik =)]

I was skepticle about using an electric toothbrush at first too. I had tons more personal control with a manual toothbrush but it all changed once I got my first electric toothbrush. A few years ago I was working at a pharmacy that was getting electric toothbrushes sent to them as promotions. My boss would give them to me to use. After a few years, I compiled a collection of these and decided to make my own ratings and review site about them. lol