tech needs to be pretty - discuss

[stark]

why exactly is there an obsession for "pretty" tech. particularly here in a place of self confessed geeks( see other thread ) i find it quite bizarre that there is such a need for pretty stuff.

take my hifi equipment. its bog standard ( no not you...) black with knobs and buttons. i have lots of black boxes with buttons and knobs and they all do a job.

take yaks new hush pc thingy. i like that because its inobtrusive. it blends in with everything else hi-fi like ( and its got some luvverly tech on the inside).

but you look at all the consoles since time immemorium and you find a hotchpotch of different design styles. i honestly cant see that one is better than the other. should there be so much concern with the exterior of a console when the important thing is that the interior supports some cracking games?

should we care which double dealing, price fixing console supplier we get the tech from ( because they really are as bad as each other) . do people really believe that THE THREE have anything in mind other than securing their place in the market and making as much money as possible?

oh and one last thing - lets not let this thread drift off into zealotry like some others have been eh??

/me exits the forum till monday eve ( donington yaay!!)

[SimonB]

I'd love things to be a bit different looking more often. I really covet those wooden keyboards for instance.

[teamonkey]

If it's a really good piece of hardware, that's great. If it looks good too, then that's a bonus.

Take YaK's Hush. If it was in a boring beige case it'd still be some cool kit, but the fact that it looks llovely makes it utterly desirable.

[MattV]

I think it's partially because game consoles used to be (and still are to some extent) part of the toy market, not consumer electronics.

Sony's new PSX thing looks quite nondescript, a big silver box. This is probably where consoles are heading design wise, they're just catching up.

[MadHippo]

I think it's like cars:

Some cars look cool, but drive like crap.
Some cars look crap, but drive really well..
The REALLY desirable cars look good AND drive well.

Same with tech.

[Rod_S]

If it's a really good piece of hardware, that's great. If it looks good too, then that's a bonus.

Take YaK's Hush. If it was in a boring beige case it'd still be some cool kit, but the fact that it looks llovely makes it utterly desirable.

Totally agree with this. I'd never really considered an MP3 player before the iPod was released, and my G4 Powerbook was my first lappy for the same reasons - it looks so fucking cool. But it's more than them just looking cool I suppose, the thing I appreciate is the extra love and special attention that's been lavished over these toys by the product designers, and the fact that I know that they experimented with hundreds of variables before they got them looking just right.

I just bought a pair of these Mordaunt Short speakers, and without the grilles they are most definitely sexy, the white cone and the silver surround look just beautiful. Mmmm.

[Bubba]

Damn those look nice - in fact quite a bit nicer than my ms30i's (old style black) but hey the 30's sound incredible, as does the ms20i's i have as rears for watching films. In case you can't tell, I'm a big Mordaunt Short fan, although the looks are superficial to me compared to what they do - i rarely buy things for the way they look!

[skab]

Totally agree with this. I'd never really considered an MP3 player before the iPod was released, and my G4 Powerbook was my first lappy for the same reasons - it looks so fucking cool. But it's more than them just looking cool I suppose, the thing I appreciate is the extra love and special attention that's been lavished over these toys by the product designers, and the fact that I know that they experimented with hundreds of variables before they got them looking just right.

Hardly anything left to say here. I'm really into Apple as well, and I still think my G4 Cube is the greatest design ever. Not just the looks, but also the more technical design inside. Some minor drawbacks, but mostly perfect. And that's what it should be like...

[Rod_S]

Damn those look nice - in fact quite a bit nicer than my ms30i's (old style black) but hey the 30's sound incredible, as does the ms20i's i have as rears for watching films. In case you can't tell, I'm a big Mordaunt Short fan, although the looks are superficial to me compared to what they do - i rarely buy things for the way they look!

Sonically they floored everything else that I auditioned in the same price range, but I must admit I was gagging to know if they sounded as good as they looked when I first saw them. I've got them on these Gale stands, they look perfect together.



Edit take a look at these PC's , may not be to everyones tastes but I think they're quite cool.

http://www.soldam.net/products/focus/index.html

If Apple don't release a sensibly priced 970 pro desktop in the near future I'd be seriously tempted by one of these.

[korruptor]

Well, on a personal note, I like good design. I like it in games, I like it in hardware, I like it in pretty much everything. Good industrial design provides you with functionality, personality and asthetics. Ideally, no part compromises the any other.

First and foremost my tech serves a purpose. All the tech I've bought is bought for this reason alone, but I'm happy to pay a premium for "pretty tech". Sure, I bought Lapzilla, but at the end of the day it's the best machine for running OS X on - that gives me portability, connectivity, and a large, pleasent space to work in. Would I have bought it if it wasn't as sexy? Probably. Am I upset that it's this good looking?! Hell no... Give's Bluey's TiBook a run for it's money at the very least...

There's vanity involved, to a degree, but I can honestly say all the tech I own get's a hammering. I expect designers to care as much about asthetics as functionality, cos I don't want some beige bulge on my coffee table when I can have an iMac... When tech becomes a commodity, design is the last deciding factor.

[Kemper_Boyd]

The technology matters far more than the looks,
that said.

I have one of these.


It's a decendent of this.



While I'm at it.

Mmmmm.


Ahhh.

[Rod_S]

An old Cray, converted into seating:



Nice!

[Bubba]

Wow those SGI machines look pretty nice - shame pc cases are only just beginning to catch up on the whole "not look like an ugly grey box" thing which apple seem to own at the moment. Although to be fair, I quite like the Dell dimensions cases - they are really nice to work with!

Anyhoo - it won't be long till pc's start looking as good as macs (well I can dream!) but at least i've got my trusty logitech cordless optical mouse - probably the most used bit of tech I own! Design wise, they look alright, but boy is it great to use!

[strawdonkey]

Hmmm. Afterburnered GBA vs GBA SP.

Same price (go with it), whatever colour you want. Which do you pick?

Ok, so that might be a slightly invalid question - the SP fits nicely in your pocket, is more legit regards the backlight, etc etc. Bad example

For me, stuff doesn't NEED to be pretty. I've got an IBM PS/2 keyboard plugged into my ugly creamish PC, my optical mouse has cheap silver paint on it and is hence tarnished, and there's a SNES on my floor.

However, I also have two funky monitors and a sexy printer, and I am quite partial to the Gamecube, think it looks rather cute... Not so keen on the look of the Wavebirds, but I still plan to buy two next month, so it's obviously not THAT much of a concern.

Eventually I'd like to get one of those windowed Enermax PC cases with the blue cathode ray tube in them - while they might not have the style of Macs, they're still pretty nice, and it beats what I've got now.

But what I've got now works just fine, and to be honest I can live without if needs be.

[Bog]

There are times and places for "lovely" design. There are times and places where performance is all that counts. With PCs, I'm downright militant about it: The only thing I want to be spending my bacon on is grunt. Rich, chunky gobs of processing power. All my desktop machines are in cheap, boring beige cases. They're all strong enough to hold 15 and a bit stone of Bogmeat off the floor, but they ain't pretty. My laptop is a boring looking lump of black plastic, which is already having some of the finish wear down from where the zip on the laptop pack rubs it.

My palmtop, however, is an elegant design with a lovely finish. Thing is, I know it's going to accumulate scratches and dings as I use it, because it gets used an awful lot. However, at the moment, it's 90% pretty, still, and I can appreciate the aesthetic. I do like prettiness, and would far rather have a pretty looking DVD player, say, than an ugly one. If a device Just Does the Device Thing, then I think it's worth paying a few extra pennies to get a nice one. If there's a price/performance issue involved, then I'll almost always go for something that looks like it was designed by the Russian military if it works better than the one which was sculpted in the Greenwich Village design agency.

Ask me again if I ever become a multi-millionaire, I might change my tune when I can afford luxury goods R)