Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Design Sells

Author:James Spahr
Posted:7/29/1999; 8:30:27 AM
Topic:Letter to the Editor of Wired
Msg #:8882 (In response to 8870)
Prev/Next:8880 / 8884

The funny thing is that about 5 years ago IBM started investing alot of money in the design of thier Thinkpads. They hired real product designers, and left the engineers to do engineering.

Sales of Thinkpads doubled. I think almost 80% of the respondence on the the 'consummer mail-in card', listed design as one of the determining factors in buying the product.

Thinkpads and IBM NetFinity Servers get as many design awards (if not more) than the Apple products.

So if the press started hailing the design of IBM products (which only the design press really has), Dvorak would have a product marketed at him, that was designed well, to talk about.

Instead we get Dvorak ranting that Apple isn't catering to him. Not that I minded the ranting - I can understand his opinion, I just don't need to agree with it.

I think the door is wide open. Computer manufacturers should start seeking design talent. Does Dell really believe the form factor of thier CPU's are right for thier market? Furniture designers have been trying to accomodate those big bulky monitors & towers for decades. I'm happy they started putting the powerswitch on the front of the machine, but they could go a whole lot farther without reverting to tranlucent plastics.

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