Slashdot Mirror
The Best Product Designs of 2006
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."
Snubbed again.
That picture of the rescue tool looks exactly like the 'lower-human-horn harvester' from Futurama!
John
Should we let it finish first?
"This is considered plagiarism."
http:///..org...pure genius, yet absolutely impossible to explain to the uninformed.
When did it suddenly become okay to have "web" "pages" with no actual content at all, just javascript that serves no purpose but to echo html?
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...
...those rescue tools look like they would break easy, especially whenever the main focus seems to be that they are updated to match the companies new style. Anything like that in the fire service is going to be all charred and nasty looking after 6 months of use no matter how much you clean and degrease/regrease it. Rescue tools need to be ergonomic for about 2-3 firefighters to hold them, not one person like the design seems to imply. Oh, and number 34, who is going to run with a flashlight?
Sig: I stole this sig.
Surveillance Dome Camera? Are they kidding? These have been popping out of the ceilings of retail stores for many years. Are they getting recognition for painting part of it silver?
I stopped scanning through the list after that.
Developers: We can use your help.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/06/idea2006/s ource/1.htm
That way you only need to edit the number at the when somebody mentions a number
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Holy crap! It's such a painfully glorious and obvious name. This thing deserves every possible prize it can get.
s ource/53.htm
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/06/idea2006/
Number 16, the self-erecting tent, is an exact duplicate of the PopTent. My wife and I have had one for years and love it. They were featured in the (bad) movie Congo.
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?
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
Because it seems like these people are in bed with Panasonic and Kodak. Both Panasonic devices that I have seen (a laundry machine/dryer, and a refrigerator with a pullout drawer) have competition from LG and many other manufacturers and do not have features that really set it apart. The two Kodak models are interesting in design but definetely not the best out there. I'm starting to wonder how usefull this list is if you can just buy your way in because your product looks cool.
Think I'll take that Herman Miller Chair...
I flipped through all the designs. While many of the products ideas seem cool, the implementations are dull. Dull as in grey grey grey grey and more grey, with some black highlights if you are lucky.
What are these designers afraid of? Are they scared of evoking an emotion? Even the house they laud is grey.
May we have some colour, please?
I saw Lenovo in there twice, and there were duplicate pages for a shoe as well.
I come here for the love
The fifth item of 108, a 23 lumen LED projector from Samsung is worthless. I would much rather have the monochrome laser projector from Light Blue Optics, mentioned before, I think on /. From the editorial at Audioholics:
"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!
Although just skimmed over in the precis, as no one else seems to have commented I will say the tablet would be quite handy in some school settings.
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 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 FANGS is a firefox extension 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.
Orationem pulchram non habens, scribo ista linea in lingua Latina
As far as I know, learning Braille is an essential part of the education/rehabilitation of visually impaired people in Europe. What do they teach in America, if a "majority of visually impaired people do not read" it?