By Rain Noe - May 11

Beyond Object's Align Pen: Fix the Form to Deploy the Tip

Make it right to make it write

These are three of the pens roaming around my desk that I'll grab when I need to sketch something. I don't love any of them but I got them all for free. They're all ballpoints that deploy the tip when a portion of the pen is rotated. That's a nifty

By Rain Noe - May 10

Breaking Down the Design of a Mystery Object

­ Of great frustration is that I cannot discover who designed/built the object in this image that I found floating around the internet. If you know whose work this is, please sound off, as I am desperate to examine the rest of this person's portfolio. This object's design is all

By Rain Noe - May 10

Magical German-Designed Micro Vacuum Attachment

Is there any worse sound than when you're vacuuming, and suddenly hear the whining interrupted by that "FWUPP" noise that means you just sucked up a small object? What the eff was that? My wedding ring? A piece of crucial medication? That special screw I dropped and have been looking

By Rain Noe - May 08

What If Lids Could Do More Than Just Seal a Container?

Nendo re-thinks closures for vessels with their "Air Lids"

A fluoroelastomer is a variant of synthetic rubber. Chemical- and stain-resistant, it's used to make seals in air conditioners and automobiles. Nendo, however, imagined more domestic applications for the stuff, and partnered with air conditioner manufacturer Daikin, a company well-versed in fluoroelastomers, to make a new series of kitchen objects.

By Rain Noe - May 08

Tiny, Ambivalent Storage Drawers from Japan

There's a craftsman in Japan going by the handle Conocoto (I looked it up, it's a town in Peru) who makes these tiny, ambivalent storage drawers. They're designed to hold "nothing particularly," he writes on his Japanese-language blog. "Please store your favorite things like toothpicks and stamps." Although the jewelry

By Rain Noe - May 07

Design Discussion: How Would You Design a Modern-Day Grandfather Clock?

Also: What does Herman Miller's son have to do with this?

Question: If you're re-designing an object that has a long history, do you feel compelled to somehow integrate that history into the design? Or do you feel progress is only made by throwing out the past and reaching for fresh forms? I'll try to clarify that question using an

By Rain Noe - May 07

Desktop Valets/Organizers, Yea or Nay?

How do you organize the things you carry, when not carrying them?

Whether you refer to it as an "Everyday Carry" or not, most of us have things we consistently keep on our person as we leave the house. For some, if not for your correspondent, it makes sense to marshal all of these things onto a dedicated object at the end

By Rain Noe - May 01

An Object to Prevent Rust Rings Left From Cans, Yea or Nay?

The constant struggle for product designers is (or should be): Am I creating something of true utility, or just bringing more stuff into the world? I do get annoyed at how bottles/cans in bathrooms/kitchens get wet, collect water at the bottom and leave a ring on surfaces. But I cannot

By Rain Noe - May 01

The Success of the Forktula Should Inspire You to Design Something and Kickstart It

It's a spatula for your fork, a squeegee for your plate

Like the Bath Buddy from yesterday, I'll put this in the silly-but-useful category. The Forktula is simply a small piece of silicone with two holes on it, and it goes over two fork tines like a sleeve. That allows you to do this: As someone who hates to

By Rain Noe - Apr 30

Simple, Clever Object That Makes Washing Dogs Easy

It's called Bath Buddy and I feel like an idiot for not thinking of this

The sequence of my thought process when seeing this object: 1. This seems silly 2. Oh wait a sec, this would be very useful 3. WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS

By Rain Noe - Apr 26

Is That Airplane Oxygen Mask Photo an Example of Stupidity or Bad Design?

When that Southwest Airlines flight depressurized last week between New York and Dallas, killing that poor woman, the plane began descending rapidly and the overhead oxygen masks deployed. I'll never understand this compulsion, but one of the chaps in the photo below pulled out his phone to capture this selfie:

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