FRIEZE NEW YORK 2013
INTERNATIONAL HOME + HOUSEWARES SHOW 2013
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2012
BEIJING DESIGN WEEK 2012
Posted by hipstomp / Rain Noe | 15 Mar 2013
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Comments (6)
In the quest to go ultra-minimal—they're practically channeling Braun—with their new wall-mounted Bluetooth speaker/radio Muji has made an interesting UI choice: The user pulls on the power cord (which doubles as a speaker cable) to turn the device on and off, like an old-school ceiling lamp.
It seems a bit unusual particularly given that there are already playback control buttons on the top of the device...
...but perhaps five was the magic number, and the anonymous Muji designer responsible could stomach no more.
In any case, it's got a 30-foot range and comes in at under $100. What's not clear is if they'll let this baby break out of the Japanese market.
Comments
Obviously a callback to Naoto Fukasawa's CD Player
http://www.ideo.com/work/cd-player-for-muji/?work/featured/muji/
Is it not just keeping in with the design of the classic CD player IDEO did for them in 2002 (it just hit me that that's over 10 years ago!!)
I'ts an update to Naoto Fukasawa's CD player donefor Muji years ago. The pull cord activated the CD to start playing and the only contols were next track, previous track and volume. The pull cord interaction makes for a delightful experience if for nothing more than bringing joy to the user- I love mine, and yes I still listen to my CDs :)
Not mentioned in this article is that Muji had a CD player designed by Fukasawa that looked exactly like this, where the pull cord changed the song. This is simply an update of that design, with no CD.
Um. No mention of Naoto Fukusawa's original Muji 'Without Thought' CD player, with virtually the same design? Its a little unlike Muji to be referential (self-or-otherwise) but there it is.
They changed only the front fascia from the Fukasawa-designed CD Player. The rest of the ID is literally the same CAD file, no?