By Rain Noe - Apr 19

Watch Joseph Herscher's Latest Rube Goldberg Machine, Which Took Three Months to Design

"The cake server" is the most complicated one he's done so far

Joseph Herscher never ceases to amaze with his Rube Goldberg contraptions, and this is without a doubt the most inventive one he's done so far. It involves danger, babies, fluids, open flame, butter…ah, you get the idea, just watch it: How does he come up with this stuff?

By Rain Noe - Apr 17

BadAbout: A Website Where You Can Complain About Product Designs

No positivity allowed, that's not the point here

BadAbout is the name of a website billing itself as "an online encyclopedia of criticism:" "We allow users to quickly share and discover the drawbacks about something, usually a product or service. We are not a general review site. We collect the bad points to achieve a positive purpose."That's right,

By Rain Noe - Apr 16

This "Easy Way to Thread a Needle" Hack Looks Great, But I Can't Get It to Work With Machine Needles

Is it me, or is the trick fugazi?

If you regularly use a sewing machine and have declining eyesight, you know that threading that damn needle is the most frustrating part of the process. There are times when I've continued sewing with the wrong-sized needle just because I subconsciously didn't want to insert and thread a new one.

By Rain Noe - Apr 13

Design Criticism: Spanish Jewelry Box

Shall we turn this into a regular event, called Nitpick Fridays?

This is one of those objects that I find beautiful in one configuration, yet ugly in another. While beauty is a subjective thing, I wanted to go over the object with you and see if we can come to some agreement about universal aesthetics (if such a thing exists).

By Rain Noe - Apr 13

What Was the Purpose of Saloon Doors?

Let's analyze the design features

The function of a doorway is to allow people to pass through a wall. The function of a door is to seal that aperture, providing visual privacy, protection from the elements and denying access to people who are not supposed to pass through that wall. Given those truths saloon

By Rain Noe - Apr 12

Unusual Transportation Concept: Flying Trains

"It's crazy--but it's so crazy that it just, might, work"

The always-imaginative Russian concept designer Semenov Dahir Kurmanbievich is at it again. This time he's conceived of a mass transit system that combines aspects of an airplane and a train: Obviously the craft is meant to draw power from the monorail. A monorail system, and the idea of getting the

By Emily Engle - Apr 11

Maude's Line of Sex Essentials Makes Sex a Well-Designed Experience from Drugstore to Bedroom

Trojan who?

Does anyone know a single person that enjoys shopping for sex-related products in drugstores? From hideous packaging to creepy names to the overabundance of available styles—right up to the part where you make uncomfortable eye contact with the cashier—I can't think of a single enjoyable step in the process. Considering

By Rain Noe - Apr 11

Prototyping a New Form Factor for the Desktop PC

Form follows fins

Unless you're a gaming nerd, I'm willing to bet your desktop PC is ugly and hidden away rather than prominently displayed. It is odd that such a crucial object in our work lives receives such little design attention, but I suppose we all need what PCs deliver more than we

By Rain Noe - Apr 02

Finally! Dieter Rams Documentary by Gary Hustwit is On the Way

"If I had to do it over again, I would not want to be a designer."

Dieter Rams appears sparingly in Gary Hustwit's "Objectified" documentary on product design. Perhaps that was for the best, as Hustwit's now working on a dedicated feature-length documentary on Rams, where we'll get to hear about his philosophies, processes and inspiration in-depth. Hustwit has released three teaser trailers: Rams

By Rain Noe - Mar 29

A Roof Window That Transforms Into a Balcony in Seconds

Velux's Cabrio window turns attic space into viable living space

In "Great Design Solutions for Maximizing the Functionality of a Pitched-Roof Space," we looked at some nifty design tricks for those living in attic spaces. Here's another one that adds something the previous tricks didn't: Fresh air and an observation platform. GIF via 99% That's the Cabrio Balcony window,

By Rain Noe - Mar 26

Great Design, Materials Selection and UX: Oru's Improved Coast XT Folding Kayak

Origami and extrusions FTW

This should be a case study on how good design and material selection can yield an outstanding product that's a huge improvement over what came before. Kayaks have traditionally been made from wood, or fiberglass, or roto-molded polyethylene, or marine plywood. The materials are rigid, and an eight-foot-long kayak

By Rain Noe - Mar 23

Why You Should Never Ship a Package With Equilateral Sides

UPS = United Parcel Sisyphus

Remember the earlier post where I received the tiny battery I ordered in a gargantuan box? Reader Andrew Roberson pointed out that the cause was "on-demand packaging," a practice which the company that provides Staples' fulfillment machinery uses. In any case, here's another lesson about packaging--not for packages you receive,

By Rain Noe - Mar 20

Clever Design for a Two-Vehicle System for Harvesting Olives

This is even better than the Multi-Headed Nut Wizard

For millennia, this is the method we used to get food out of trees: So let's say the crop in question was olives. How would you mechanize the process? You could surely rig up something to shake the tree, but what about picking each and every olive off of the

By Rain Noe - Mar 19

Keyboard Geek-Out: Explaining the Tactility of Different Types of Mechanical Keys

Our World's Fair Nano Coverage continues with a look at Kono Mechanical Keyboards

Amidst all the techy-tech at the World's Fair Nano in San Francisco was an unassuming display of an anachronistic, but popular, series of objects: Mechanical keyboards. At Kono Mechanical Keyboards' table two self-professed keyboard geeks, one of them Reddit Senior Designer Michael Farrell and the other Kono CEO Andrew Lekashman

By Rain Noe - Mar 16

World's Fair Nano Coverage: More Wearables with a Tale of Two Rings, Part 1

Will Titanium Falcon's Talon gesture control ring flop again?

Most of you own one or more devices that go into or over your ears, and some of you own smartwatches. The ears and wrist are two prime locations for wearables. The fingers, however, have yet to have a winning product take advantage of that on-body real estate. At the

By Rain Noe - Mar 16

World's Fair Nano Coverage: More Wearables with Rowkin's Assortment of Self-Charging Wireless Earbuds

Is variety the spice of Bluetooth earbuds?

In the previous post on wearables seen at the World's Fair Nano, we looked at Ashley Chloe's Helix Cuffs vs. Apple's AirPods. This time we'll look at Rowkin's offerings, which are much more similar to Apple's product than the Cuffs, but have some minor differences in UX. Rowkin displayed their

By Rain Noe - Mar 15

Crave's Build-Your-Own-Vibrator Workshop Demonstration, and an Explanation of the Design of the Duet Pro

"No one wants a loud vibrator"

As we mentioned earlier, Crave's Pleasure Tour is a traveling build-a-vibrator workshop housed out of a restored Airstream trailer. Here industrial designer Ti Chang, Crave co-founder and VP of Design, walks you through the build process for their Duet Pro vibrator. While the split-tip design may remind males of

By Rain Noe - Mar 14

World's Fair Nano Coverage: Powered Skateboards Offering Plenty of Personal Mobility Options

See the latest from Boosted, Evolve, Inboard, Leiftech and Riptide

Personal mobility was a big category at the World's Fair Nano, with both attendees and demonstrators zipping around Pier 48 on a variety of powered, belt-driven skateboards. Here are the five exhibitors we saw, and the design/performance/price differences between each: RiptidePrice Range: $599 to $729This is the entry-level brand out

By Rain Noe - Mar 13

World's Fair Nano Coverage: Q&A with Chris Hoffmann, Inventor of a One-Wheeled Motorcycle

The Ryno Micro-Cycle looks like something from a videogame. Because it is

It's not often we see an entirely new form factor in transportation design, but the Ryno Micro-Cycle definitely fits the description. Invented by mechanical engineer Chris Hoffmann, what started out as an idle thought--his daughter saw a one-wheeled motorcycle in a videogame and Hoffmann wondered if he could build one

By Rain Noe - Mar 13

World's Fair Nano Coverage: Crave's Airstream Trailer Transformed Into a Mobile Pleasure Workshop

Ti Chang launches the Crave Pleasure Tour

For the past several months, industrial designer Ti Chang and her team at Crave have been renovating an old Airstream trailer for an unusual purpose: Rather than prepping it for a camping trip, they've converted it into a rolling build-a-vibrator workshop to tour the country. Crave has been holding build-your-own-vibrator

By Emily Engle - Mar 09

Pangea's Custom Oceanic Maps Combine Bathymetric Data with Design

Some Friday afternoon eye candy!

A couple of years ago, we covered Lake Art, a family-run business that uses a laser cutter/engraver to create decorative objects inspired by local lakes, rivers and oceans. Recently brought to our attention is Pangea, a small company that has a more minimal take on a similar topic. When

By Rain Noe - Mar 08

Samsung's New, Invisible "Ambient Mode" Feature Shows You What the Design of a TV Should Be

Next they'll be building Wonder Woman's jet

As glass rectangles of all sizes have come to occupy our attention spans, Samsung's designers have taken the largest one and enabled it to disappear. Their new QLED TVs, which come in fives sizes from 49 to 88 inches, have an irresistible "Ambient Mode" that kicks in when the TV's

By Emily Engle - Mar 06

HaloEffect Offers a Streamlined Hands-Free Lifestyle for Smartphone Addicts

One phone attachment allows connectivity to three useful mounts

I generally keep my phone within a 15ft radius of my body at all times, and I don't think I'm the only one. When you think about it, though, smartphone mounts haven't exactly been updated to consider the wide variety of tasks we now rely on our phones for. The

By Rain Noe - Mar 05

Bulletproof and Natural-Disaster-Resistant Classroom Shelters

In that order

In 2013 a tornado ripped through the town of Moore, Oklahoma, leveling the Plaza Towers Elementary School. Seven children were killed in the destruction. Looking at both that incident and the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where 20 children and six adults were slaughtered with Bushmaster's version of the

By Rain Noe - Mar 02

Demonstrating the Ingenious, Low-Tech Internal Mechanism That Makes a Perpetual Flip Calendar Change Dates

In a vintage shop, or in the home of an older relative, you may have seen one of these: That's called a perpetual flip calendar, versions of which were first patented in the U.S. in the 1920s. The guy behind the "Measured Workshop" YouTube channel wanted to figure out how

By Rain Noe - Mar 01

A Pocketed, Conductive Curtain Liner That Lets You Use Tablets and Phones in the Shower. Yea or Nay?

The final non-phone-friendly frontier has been breached

People interact with their phones in movie theaters, on the subway, on the toilet, on the sidewalk, while cooking, in bed, et cetera. The shower is the last space left where your phone or tablet cannot go. So this company has invented this conductive shower curtain liner with pockets

By Rain Noe - Feb 27

Shop Class Skills vs. Mass Shooters: High School Student Invents Clever Classroom Security Device

Justin Rivard's "JustinKase" has made his entire school district a little safer

In a time when our leaders are not devising intelligent solutions to keep students safe from shootings, the students themselves are stepping up. Justin Rivard, a senior at Somerset High School in Wisconsin, can't prevent an armed maniac from pulling up to a school with bad intentions. But his invention

By Rain Noe - Feb 26

Bulletproof Backpack Sales Spike, News Org. Tests One vs. AR-15 Rounds

Unsurprisingly, sales of bulletproof backpacks for schoolchildren is on the rise. Massachusetts-based company Bullet Blocker reported a 30% increase in orders the day after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Two days after that, Florida-based bulletproof backpack manufacturer Guard Dog Security reported a 150%

By Rain Noe - Feb 26

The Extreme Security Measures Taken at "America's Safest School"

Red tape lines, bulletproof doors, smokescreens, covering drills

In the 1950s, American schoolchildren were shown a training film called "Duck and Cover." Fear of a Soviet nuclear attack meant that students had to practice air raid drills as follows: Times have changed and the air raid drills are long gone. Where schools once worried about us being killed

By Rain Noe - Feb 23

This Bridge is Cleverly Designed to Slice Ice Into 250-Meter-Wide Strips

…using cones and gravity

Flight instructor Paul Tymstra was flying 7,500 feet over Canada's Confederation Bridge when he spotted this unusual site. Tymstra snapped a pic and Tweeted it: Here's a closer look: So what's going on here? The Confederation Bridge, which connects Prince Edward Island with the mainland, has been designed to