The Beauty of Obsolescence

The previous post on Dieter Rams included an interview which featured the following ad. It is a diatribe against planned obsolescence; something I agree with strongly.


Against obsolescence from Vitsœ on Vimeo.


There's a certain beauty in obsolescence, however. This story in Wired considers how aged and loved objects do not suffer the epithet of obsolescence.

It's much the same with my first Mac, which was an iBook G3 from 2002. It's still in use. I've maxed out the ram and with a new battery, charger and a second hand hard disk, it's almost not the same machine at all; but I love using it, despite having other machines. 

In a way, once an object has been replaced with a new version, it becomes obsolete. Mostly, however, it still works and may possibly work as well or (with software upgrades or better fuel or longlife batteries) even better than the day it was bought. So it still does the same thing. 

And once it's obsolete, it stays obsolete. 

It can't get more obsolete until it either breaks and can't do something I really need (or, more likely, want) it to do. The iBook was obsolete as soon as the G4 version came out. Or possibly when Mac OS X Leopard appeared, which the iBook G3 can't run. However, it can still do pretty much what I want it to do. So it works perfectly and it's obsolete and I don't have any worries about what will the next version look like or be like because I know.

Being comfortable with "obsolete" products and objects that we can afford to replace tells us how good the design was. They're the art of the heart - the things and tools we love to use. 

An interview with Dieter Rams

Speaking of Dieter Rams (below), Alison on my degree course tipped me on fastcodesign.com's interview with Dieter Rams, spread over several video clips. Click the photos at the top of the interview page to see how uncannily Apple's designs have echoed older designs done by Dieter Rams in the 1950s and 1960s. I'm not the first to note this, obviously!

This is the first of the interviews. Click the link above for the others.



This reminded me of another interview with Rams on Gestalten TV. I have this as a podcast through iTunes, but it's also available online. Gestalten TV is well worth a visit for commentary and interviews on design, sustainability, burlesque(!) and other topics.

Design failure: getting the basics wrong

There are basic rules of design and one of them should be: "Get the basics right". Especially when it's obvious what the basics are. Washing machines should wash clothes. Televisions should show broadcast tv. Cars should provide a means of transport. Phones should be a means of communication. Getting the basics right isn't precisely covered by any one of Dieter Rams 10 rules of good design, but it's implied in rule #8.

Which is where my Sony-Ericsson Xperia X8 (an Android phone) fails. It's great as an iPod Touch competitor: it can do Kindle, music, YouTube, sync with Google... all sorts of stuff. It's beautifully made, like most Sony kit and it feels really nice in the hand. There's something really right about the hardware ergonomics. But it's a lousy phone. I gave it 2-3 weeks trial and then I went back to my Sony-Ericsson Elm (aka J10i2 - I prefer Elm), which doesn't do most of what the X8 can do, entertainment-wise - but it's a very, very good phone. As a phone.

On the X8, starting and finishing a call isn't easy. Finding the telephone interface isn't easy - it's buried under layers of other stuff. Which means plenty of missed calls. And texting: the text displays in a tiny window - the rest of the screen is wasted - and you can't easily edit it once it's entered.

Being a phone, when all came to all, was what I got it for. It's just not just me. My wife, who really knows her phones, tried it for a day before going back to her temporary Sony-Ericsson W595 (she's awaiting an iPhone).

So, message to designers everywhere: get the basics right. If you're designing a phone, make sure it's a really great phone. Because even a smartphone is still, at heart, a phone.

eBooks

Been reading "Game of Thrones" (Kindleware, on Android). Interesting problem. The e-version doesn't have a map of Westeros, which presumably the hardcopy has. I've missed having a map for the books.

Note to publishers: please include the non-text content as well. It's all the book - not just bits of it. 

Press play. Somehow...

Showing the kids of today the tech delights of yesteryear.

Don't worry. There are subtitles.



Seen on Frogdesign's Designophile blog. Thanks, guys. 

Live your life more creatively

There're plenty of "motivationals" out there (it's like being a "creative", only more kick-arse) but I like this guy's site, mostly for the bike content. And his motivation is on a human scale: like doing a simple one day bike trip, rather than plunging in. Realistic motivation is easier to listen to.

http://www.alastairhumphreys.com

The Folding Bicycle Diaries

The previous post on music and architecture came out of reading David Byrne's "Bicycle Diaries", in which Byrne talks about... Well, read some reviews here and here.

I've spent more time on my bike recently (Giant Halfway, below).



Not the best ever bike, but any bike is a bike and doing a few miles now and again is a great way to rediscover the surreal, nomadic thoughts of a younger me as well as hopefully more creative thoughts about my dissertation.

And the advantage of a folding bike is that a good one can be parked anywhere. So if you don't have a shed or a garage, you can still drop your bike down next to the sofa. You wouldn't win any races on a Giant Halfway but some of Dahon's bikes look pretty nippy. And the Halfway was a lot of fun down on Romney Marsh recently.

Folding bike advice.

David Byrne: How architecture helped music evolve

Byrne suggests that the environment in which we work affects our output and that this can be viewed as a model of creativity. If you give someone a nail, he'll make a hammer. It's not a brilliant talk, but it's watchable; it's David Byrne and it's thought-provoking.