I need some ideas... - gadget brainstorming.

I just gave myself an assignment:

Since this whole gadget market has been flooded by tablets and smartphones, I was wondering if it might be possible to make both of them work in a single form. Tho this is the main problem, I don’t know how I could make up something that could be a tablet and a smartphone. The main issue, as always, is the screen.

We like it when we can use the smartphone to call someone, since it has a decent size, and it fits our palm. Yet we also want to read the local newspaper on the go, yet we need 2 hands and a bigger screen.

I’ll just write a couple of other ideas in my head: I kept them as some sort of sketch.

Needs:
-Phone stuff
-Media
-Reading
-Agenda/planning
-security (we don't want a thief to take it from our hands.

What do we have at our disposal:
-Phone/tablet
-Headphones: wire or wireless

Issues:

-Screen size
-portability
-safety.

Current influences:
http://walyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/foldout_screen_flip_phone3.jpg

Ideas:

-2 screens,one over another; it can slide/rotate 90*
--if we have the latter, how would we make it so that the screens wouldn't have issues such as breaking, getting dirty, etc.
--if we have the former, then how could we make it slide with no issues?
-Flexible phone?:  http://walyou.com/philips-fluid-smartphone-with-flexible-oled-display/

And kinda that’s it. I’d really love a big brainstorming on this.

Alex.

you might want to back up a bit, and look more closely at the problem you’re wanting to solve.
smart phone + tablet = new form, is more of a conclusion rather than a question.

Didn’t think was a crowd sourcing forum…

Just put a touch screen on it.

Consider looking around at some concepts that have already been done.

Frankly - almost every student portfolio I’ve seen for the past 5 years has had some form of a “magical pull out flexible screen tablet phone” in it. And while I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, it’s been done, recycled and rehashed several hundred times.

The only challenge that exists for that area is no longer really a design challenge, it’s an engineering challenge. You can bake a screen into 1000 different shapes and all would be equally valid (and thus the reason we have billions of cell phones) and so many have already been done.

(Case in point)

Each of those concepts is clever in it’s own unique way, but the jist is all the same. If you’re really passionate about it then go ahead and explore it, but if this was a student asking me for advice I would shy away from these kinds of projects…in a portfolio they all kind of show up as the same thing, and a slight modification on a concept someone has already done in 100 different ways is not unique.

There are tons of problems that still exist in the world that may be far more trivial, but still offer huge possibilities for good design.

Don’t know, at least I was interested in trying to make a concept gadget that would also be innovative and also be somehow realistic.

I don’t wanna end up with the same idea as the ones posted in your link, yet if I look there, suddenly all my ideas are gone…

Don’t know, at least I am a big fan of Andrew Kim and his work:

http://www.minimallyminimal.com/all-work/

Only new idea is to make a total touchscreen phone. Even more than the Nokia N9. With touchscreen buttons on the left and right and so on.

Start with a real problem and not just: “ooH i like smartphones they are sexy and hot. And when I design one everybody will know I’m a real designer. And then Apple will have to pay lots of $$$ just so I would work for them” BTW this applies to all -especially cars and furniture :wink:

Start with something that frustrates you and then solve the problem in a million different ways.
If you don’t get frustrated you will not be a good designer :wink: Albeit I’m probably gonna get flamed for this.

What frustrates your grandmother? Your friends? your pet??? Draw inspiration from problems not technology.

Do not be a slave of technology…just because we can doesn’t mean we need it.

Oh and if you need ideas…get them for yourself.

And I hate gadgets…hope if you do design one they will be conceived according to C2C-methodology

Agreed. Starting from a " gadget" you have already boxed in your thinking. Instead start from life, from meaning, and let design flow from that.

Look around the world. Read newspapers and magazines. Observe people. See trends. Identify problems. Find out why. Create some problem statements. Find out what’s been done, what’s a dead end, and where there is still opportunity. Ideate.

I suggest you try observing people’s gestures. How they move and physically interact with that kind of tech. See if you can observe any awkward moments or pain points. That might inspire. Doing a screen deprivation workshop (10ish friends of different backgrounds etc) also might be telling. As well asking people what they mainly use their tablet and smart phone for- what is their preferred communication method?

Start with a real problem and not just: “ooH i like smartphones they are s3x and hot. And when I design one everybody will know I’m a real designer. And then Apple will have to pay lots of $$$ just so I would work for them” BTW this applies to all -especially cars and furniture

Well, I don’t think I mentioned - I’m kinda young. I mean, I’m 16… and yet I did have some graphics done at a decent level, I still have a lot to learn, so I suppose that the forum might accept some little fails for a while - tho I promise they won’t be many.

Plus, I don’t expect to get rich over night. It would be awesome, but its highly improbable. :laughing:

Starting from a " gadget" you have already boxed in your thinking. Instead start from life, from meaning, and let design flow from that.

Don’t know, I’ve always been a victim of my thoughts and always had a certain idea I wanted to continue until its done properly. Tho maybe I’m nuts :laughing:

Inspiration - I usually lay back and think what would be the main problems of that thing, and how I could make it be different.

Look around the world. Read newspapers and magazines. Observe people. See trends. Identify problems. Find out why. Create some problem statements. Find out what’s been done, what’s a dead end, and where there is still opportunity. Ideate.

Well, I suppose this is what I did…I decided that I will give myself some time to design a smartphone that will be comfortable and pleasant for the user (like, a week or so.)

I’ll have to make a bit more research, but I’ll see.

I suggest you try observing people’s gestures. How they move and physically interact with that kind of tech. See if you can observe any awkward moments or pain points. That might inspire. Doing a screen deprivation workshop (10ish friends of different backgrounds etc) also might be telling. As well asking people what they mainly use their tablet and smart phone for- what is their preferred communication method?

What’s a screen deprivation workshop? I mean, I know what screen deprivation is, but I didn’t knew workshops for this existed. I mean, hell, shouldn’t it be called “vacation”? xD

I might ask someone about the tablet vs. smartphone issue.

Quit your whining and design something useful…(read= something that is not a smartphone)

And yes I hope you fail a lot of times I fail 99% of the times and it gives me great insights.
Come back if you have something to post (a napkin sketch, insight or whatever) stop defending yourself and start being vulnerable. that’s when you’ll learn.

And you plan to do this in a week? Are you mocking me???
Seriously you got all the time in the world (you are 16-years old)! Designing things takes time. And it takes a whole lot more time if you plan to design them from the bottom up.

So Good luck.

You’ll need it :wink:

& tablet vs smartphone??? :imp: You are asking all the wrong questions. It’s not about technology. It’s about human interaction with their tools. Technology is just a means to an end. The less you need the better.

BTW nice to see that 16-years-old do know what they want to do with their lives instead of ‘liking’ things on facebook :wink:

And if you do want to persist in designing a smartphone ask your grandmother what her ideal smartphone should look like. It’ll be an instant hit I guarantee.

Whoa Atohms. Slow down. There’s a fine line between being helpful and being harsh. Your tone may give him a bad impression of the boards and deter him from posting further.

Deformat: It’s great you’re thinking about this stuff. The thing is, you’re not really taking in any of the feedback. You’re just rejecting all of our advice with excuses like you’re 16 or that you’ve done it already. In design, you never finish. Think you’ve researched all that you can? No way. There’ s a world full of things to explore.

You also need to be realistic. Andrew is a great designer, but the difference here is he works very hard and spends lots of time doing it. A week is simply not enough time for you to even wrap your head around the project. What’s the scope of it? Is it an aesthetic exercise? Is it more focused on human behaviors with technology?

My advice: slow down, and start sketching your ideas. Everything you say is just fluff. Don’t tell us; show us.

Quit your whining and design something useful…(read= something that is not a smartphone)

So…I suppose you mean that I should start with something easier?.. or is it just…don’t know, general antipathy towards smartphones?..

I’m not trying to be ignorant, I’m trying to learn, since as I said, I’m pretty much of a beginner.

And yes I hope you fail a lot of times I fail 99% of the times and it gives me great insights.
Come back if you have something to post (a napkin sketch, insight or whatever) stop defending yourself and start being vulnerable. that’s when you’ll learn.

And you plan to do this in a week? Are you mocking me???
Seriously you got all the time in the world (you are 16-years old)! Designing things takes time. And it takes a whole lot more time if you plan to design them from the bottom up.

So Good luck.

You’ll need it

Well, thanks. :slight_smile: I guess you’re right, practice makes perfect. And yeah, it seems I’ve been a bit over optimist with the 1 week thing…

& tablet vs smartphone??? You are asking all the wrong questions. It’s not about technology. It’s about human interaction with their tools. Technology is just a means to an end. The less you need the better.

I was just answering rachelkroft’s question.

You also need to be realistic. Andrew is a great designer, but the difference here is he works very hard and spends lots of time doing it. A week is simply not enough time for you to even wrap your head around the project. What’s the scope of it? Is it an aesthetic exercise? Is it more focused on human behaviors with technology?

My advice: slow down, and start sketching your ideas. Everything you say is just fluff. Don’t tell us; show us.

I’m trying to mix both an aesthetic exercise and a experiment on human behavior with technology.

Ok then, I’ll try studying some more and hopefully come up with something.

Ok last post was maybe a bit harsh :wink:

But still:

  • You gave yourself a week an yet I haven’t seen one sketch or idea (and this tread is already a week old)
  • No I do not dislike smartphones. But as previously mentioned. Everybody wants to design them these days while there are no new ideas being shown since the Iphone1. There’s more and better opportunities out there. Start from something that bothers you. You do get frustrated by a products that you use everyday? yes? So try to fix those (in a million different ways). It’ll be the best exercise.
  • And again stop defending yourself and show something. You’ll learn and get new insights while designing. To me you haven’t started yet and want a solution to a problem before you even started. That is not how designing works.
    It even feels like you want us to give you ideas instead of you showing us your ideas and then get some feedback.

So I’ll refrain from commenting until I see at least some ideas or insights.

If you want to get anywhere with this, you’re going to have to start by storyboarding some scenarios based on actual problems. Do not focus on the device. Focus on what happens, how it happens, and why it is valuable to specific end users. After you’ve done 30 or 40 storyboards, you’ll start to understand where the opportunities are. That’s when you start designing the device.

^^^ that ^^^

Deformat,

Everyone here has offered good advice on where to start. I too, am against the idea of working on a smartphone/tablet as a beginning designer. For the simple reason that you won’t be able to make a prototype and see and test the results. Design is not just making pretty pictures. It is about finding solutions to peoples “problems”. The result is a physical object.

After you have considered and designed a solution, you want to know how good your idea is. You want to test it and feel it and watch other people test it and use it. With a smartphone, or a tablet, or a piece of very complicated technology, you are not able to see the result unless you work in a lab at a very big technology company. To grow as a designer you want to make you own work better through evolution.

As a young person intent on learning design, try to pick something that you could work all the way through, even if it is a rough prototype. Konstantin Grcic builds great models out of cardboard and glue as prototypes. Technology should not be a limitation.

Best of luck to you, great to be able to reach all these people all over the world for input.