Industrial Design Excellence Awards 2004

burgburgburg writes "The IDEA 2004 awards (Industrial Design Excellence Awards) have been announced. Apple won 2 Gold (for the iPod Mini and the G5), a Silver (for the iSight) and a Bronze (for the Apple Wireless Keyboard). Some comments: 'Like a modern touchstone the iPod Mini is a product people will love to hold. The designers skillfully integrated the satin aluminum case with flush controls and a simple touchpad interface to create a jewel-like piece of technology.' - Monty Montague, IDSA, Design Principal, BOLT. 'The G5 is impressive with visually lithe qualities and a host of thoughtful and innovative user features wrapped in aluminum. Its well-engineered technical features, such as its cooling system and internal component mounts, are honestly and elegantly executed. The G5's aesthetic is a pure and graceful expression of Apple's philosophical precept of leaving no detail un-designed. This is what results when engineering and design play nice with each other.' - Christopher Alviar, IDSA, Principal, CG/A"

Comments

Hooray for Apple

[neuro.slug]

This, of course, is not surprising news to most of us. What's confusing to me is the complete inability of other PC manufacturors to produce intelligently-designed computers. I mean, c'mon ... most PCs nowadays still require you to remove a handful of screws to get inside the case. And once you're inside, it doens't get any prettier. I have yet to see any other computer maker come close to Apple's design.

-- n

Re:Hooray for Apple

[MoonBuggy]

It's price, in my experience at least. There are standard PC component manufacturers who come close to (although not quite as good as, IMO) Apple but to build a system using absolute top quality bits you'll be paying a similar premium to buying an Apple. Apple don't just invest money in design, they put it into making their hardware from the best materials - you won't find liquid cooling in a Dell, Toshiba notebooks don't come in titanium/aluminium cases. Equally though, Dell and Toshiba machines don't cost anything like Apples.

Other Cool stuff as well

[jellomizer]

Going thew the site I have found some real good ones (Non Computer related) Like a Hammer I find it amazing that after millions of years of humans making hammers that they can still improve on it. It really gives me great faith in the advancement of science that we can improve anything for years to come. Also I found it odd that the best interface was for Mohawk Paper Mills While it is nice and all I didn't find the interface a wow that is so much more intuitive to use then any other site. But still I find it is nice that it won because I drive by the mill every day to get to work (With its huge smoke stacks billowing out tons of steam).

Re:Actually in the past year or two

[blakespot]

It is part of the elegance of the Apple solution to offer as the standard solution a combination CD/CD-RW/DVD/DVD-RW drive, the SuperDrive. There is no elegance in splitting this across two optical drives. Yes, doing so will allow you the user the absolute fastest CD writer and the seldom-used speed advantage in a disc-to-disc copy scenario, but for the VAST majority of users, there is zero benefit to two optical drives.

As for the removal of a PCI slot, how is even the rather above-average user held back by this? The G5 has on-board optical in/out, FireWire 400 & 800, USB 2.0, Serial ATA, GHz ethernet, modem, bluetooth (opt), 802.11g wireless (opt), and all AGP vidcards can drive two screens. What, exactly, does even the hardcore Mac user need in the missing 4th PCI slot? 3 PCI-X slots seems not even remotely a limitation.

There is and always has been a distinctly superior "feel" to Macintosh hardware. It is a fortunate thing that now that feel is matched by unmatched stability, functionality, and performance.

blakespot

one thing

[dncsky1530]

If you notice, everything that won an award, is, no matter how complex, relatively simple.
None of the winning products had useless features or sails hanging off the side. These products had what they needed, and only that, to fulfill their purpose. take the winning website design, it is one of the most basic and simple designs for a site you can probably find, its simple to navigate, and is quite fast.
What is hard to understand is that why more compaines - mainly pc hardware companies don't take note. There weren't any tower PCs on the list, or websites filled with pop-up and banner ads. I think we can all learn alot if we just pay attention.

That is a load of crap

[revscat]

It no longer matters how clean the code is; it matters how nifty the case is.

Completely untrue, both in the case of Apple and Google.

For Apple, the software they write is tight, powerful, well designed, and elegant. You can reach common functions easily, and the consistency between applications means you don't ever have to do such things as guessing whether "Preferences" is under "File" or "Window".

OS X, iLife, and other Apple software are examples of what well-designed software should be. As a software architect, I am consistently impressed at the dedication Apple has for putting out not only beautiful but rock-solid pieces of software.

Re:Moderation

[trudyscousin]

"Criticising those who blindly love and follow Apple is not a 'troll.'"

That's the problem in a nutshell: Trolls seem to think it's a blind love that Macintosh enthusiasts have for their computer equipment. It isn't. Articles such as this one help to explain why we love the hardware. There certainly have been enough of them to explain why we love the software.

But trolls blithely ignore all of this, preferring to think of Apple enthusiasts as some sort of cult, "following" a leader. Perhaps it's some sort of diminished intellect that can wrap itself around no other concept than that.

If you dislike the Apple coverage on Slashdot so much, remember that's what filtering is for. Are you also sufficiently addled that you cannot use it?

Nice to hold.

[torpor]

... Like a modern touchstone the iPod Mini is a product people will love to hold ...

The reason for this is simple: iPod is pure Bar of Soap.

The "Bar of Soap" design methodology simply states: the most initimate 'implement' most people use these days, is the bar of soap. A bar of soap goes where no other implement goes. It is held and used in loving trust.

Design any consumer device to match the parameters of a bar of soap, and it will be loved...