In his article, "The Perfect Thing", which can be found here, Steven Levy talks about the creation of the first iPod by Apple. Now, I am assigned to answer three questions on this article, I assume "post answers to the following questions" means i should deal with each question separately.
1) What elements of the design process does this article illustrate?
As it is included in the article, Apple's creation and design of iPod starts with inspections of the current products that fall into the same category as iPod; portable mp3 player. To begin with, various Apple employees examine various mp3 products and highlight their flaws. Through this examination and highlighting process, Apple sets out aims to how to address these flows and make a better, a perfect, product. Some of these ideas include: The brand new scrolling wheel, which will replace the buttons on any other mp3 player and make it easier to scroll through thousands of songs; a HDD (hard disk drive) with huge storage space; the pocket-size dimensions combined with long battery life and lightweight for ultimate portability... In the modeling process the iPod has various curators which cause ideas from various minds to meld together.
The trial & error process is clearly visible in Fadell's three models. He shows three designs to Jobs — hard to imagine how many designs he made until he obtained the best three of them — after which Jobs finds faults in tow of them and admires the third one with a "just right". It is also true that Fadell, plays a little game in his presentation and knowingly brings two faulty and one perfect designs, but still this shows he underwent the trial & error process.
Lastly, although not very deeply illustrated in the article it is clear that, to obtain the perfect product the iPod team puts the iPod under various tests to make sure it is durable and enduring, like the falling test.
2) What factors would you use to evaluate a "perfect thing"?
Although some staying the same these factors would vary from product to product, since different products are used for different purposes. Generally, the looks, weight, size, fit, easily usability, and sometimes simplicity are important factors. Also for a IT instrument, battery life and compatibility is important. There are tons of products running on various software systems, therefore compatibility is a key factor. For an example Apple's iPod only works with iTunes, this is a flaw, since the owner of an iPod has to use iTunes for the iPod to be put into work, and there are a lot of people who use different programs. However, this is a trick, since through a good product like iPod, Apple promotes another of its product; iTunes.
3) Whether you own an iPod or not, you probably have some opinions of this product. What do you feel are its strengths and weaknesses?
In overall, I believe iPod is an almost perfect product: good job Apple. To be on the same ground, I do not own an iPod, but I have seen and used many, and I own an iPhone, which adds all of the capabilities of a phone to an iTouch — the last form of iPod. The design (looks) is very temping. No comment but only astounding admiration to the scrolling wheel and navigation with only four buttons. Although the dimensions are okay, I find the dept-width and dept-height ratios a little low. The weight and size make this product perfect in portability. The huge storage space is more than anyone can desire. The only lacking point I can name is the compatibility problems. iPod will only work with iTunes, which makes people like me who used to use a different music player now use two, or migrate into iTunes, which is quite a work. However I am anything but surprised on this compatibility issue since this is long war from the past between Apple and Microsoft. Fun fact on this cold war: type iPod or iTouch or iPhone on a Apple word program it will accept it, type the same into a Microsoft based word program it will underline it with a red line and mark it is wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment