Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Form Follows Me

If “form follows function,” then how should multi-function devices be designed?

According to industrial designer Tamer Nakisci’s solution, the perfect form does not exist. So just create the perfect form for each function, and voilà, “form follows you.”

Nakisci created this conceptual design for a futuristic communications device and won the Nokia Benelux Design Contest in 2005. That’s old news by now, but I didn’t see it until I read Smashing Magazine’s recent post, “Beautiful and Original Product Designs.”

Here’s what the Nokia 888 looks like:

You can carry this flexible touch panel in your pocket, bend it to form a clip, or roll it into a wristband. Plus, it can send and receive “e-motions” to add more context to how we interact with other people.

Watch this video on YouTube (about 4 minutes) to see this engaging user experience in action.

What’s interesting to me is that the video communicates the essence of the product with no narration at all. Sure, I’m a copywriter, but it’s still exciting to see a design concept that’s so out of the ordinary, yet requires no words at all to describe it.

According to this interview at Design Emotion, Mr. Nakisici notes:

"As a designer, the human emotion is the first thing that I think about when I start a product. Most of the time the product idea comes out of these emotional ideas. I call it the soul of the product, so without the soul the body cannot survive. This is a very important step for the product design, if you don’t create a strong idea of why this object should exist, what the people will feel when they see it, touch it, then everything else you will built on it will be worthless, and another dull product would come out."

He also suggests that this device creates an “electronic friend,” type of relationship:

"For instance it asks you in the morning; ‘what shall ‘we’ do today?‘ rather than a simple agenda or reminder. Also while using the navigation function of the phone, it says: ‘we are here” instead of saying ‘you’ are here’. I think these small details create a precious whole in the end."

I agree. I want one. Too bad it’s just a concept right now, because when form follows me, the user interface gets a whole lot more intuitive—and a whole lot more fun.

Posted by Richard Bloch

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