Truthful & Easy – The new virtues in design
In this article we are going to take a look at design and marketing concepts, which enable us to orientate ourselves more easily through the complex jungle of options, alternatives and multi-functionality. In our daily life it is often no longer possible to filter out the essential information we actually want or require – because of the flood of options and cross-connections on offer. Terms like simplification, transparency, clarity, understandability and authenticity are increasingly forming the central issue for new concepts – not only in the product world and customer services, but also for all spheres of communication.
Just some facts we have researched when preparing the EASY Issue of PERCEPTIONS, to underline the long-term relevance of what we call the EASY concept in design and marketing.
News/Media
Marcos Weskamp's NewsMap
Information design is now more important than ever. It is needed to allow readers and viewers to specifically find the information that is relevant to them within the media noise.
For a more visual representation of news for instance, Marcos Weskamp has developed the NewsMap, a graphic page of the most important headlines in news, business, sports, entertainment and health. Each section is colour-coded, with more recent stories appearing in brighter tones, while the bigger a story is, the bigger it appears on the page, giving users a one-glance picture of the key stories around the world.
Web 2.0
wikipedia.org; the collaborative encyclopedia based on the "wiki" concept
The current buzzword in the tech world is Web 2.0. – the idea that the internet is now returning to its original democratic ideal. The open-sourcing model, which allows users to contribute ideas to the development of computer programmes, is now being applied outside of the technology sector. One of the most successful examples of this is Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia made up entirely of contributions from the public.
Community mapping
Zune, the iPod-rival from Microsoft, lets you share music with other zune through wifi
The fast-growing technologies of interactive mapping and open-sourcing could allow communities to come closer together through such everyday gadgets as mobile phones and PDAs.
Futurologists are predicting that the technology could be developed to create programmes that can map when friends are nearby, or can send locals’ opinions on a new restaurant for instance, direct to your phone.
Self-build
The growing trend for self building illustrates, that more and more people want to create homes that are entirely individual. Pre-fab houses are gaining popularity for their combination of flexibility and ease of construction.
Slowing down
The slow movement has been gaining ground in recent years, as people are realising the need to stop and appreciate the world around them. Slow Food is perhaps the best-known area of the movement. Citta Slow, inspired by the Slow movement, aims to create an environment where people can resist living by the clock. Shops are closed there on Thursdays and Saturdays to guard against overwork.
Clean and simple
one cable only, a familiar and emotonialy-loaded shape, 5 buttons : the 8-inch LCD television-set by +/- 0
Faced with multi-button gadgets and too many remote controls, leading edge consumers are reaching instead for pared-down, elegant technology design that can serve all their needs, but with a simple interface. As an example, Japanese brand Muji is gaining popularity among the new generation of post-minimalists, while its designs (like the wall-mounted CD player) have garnered awards worldwide for design and functionality. And Tokyo’s PlusMinusZero is leading the market in luxurious, but minimalist technology designs.
Navigation
Clear, stylish navigation is a newly important focus in our media-saturated towns. Retailers are leading the way by introducing super-sized imagery and explanatory graphics.
Bold arrows, colour-coding and sector logos can all make the shopping experience clearer and more enjoyable.
Repairing, not replacing
"Hey chair… be a bookshelf" by Maarten Baas
A growing group of consumers are rejecting the modern throwaway attitude to products by giving them new life once they are no longer useful. Ebay, with 114m users worldwide, and over 25m items for sale, has become one of the biggest markets for buying and selling second-hand goods. In contrast to eBay, Freecycle encourages members to exchange used goods for free.
At last year’s Milan Furniture Fair Dutch designer Maarten Baas showed a range of furniture called “Hey Chair, be a Bookshelf”.
The all-knowing consumer
a screenshot of pricefight.com, the latest of price-comparaison sites
Thanks to the internet, consumers can now find out almost everything about the companies they buy from and the products they buy before they go shopping. Many consumers research their goods online before they set their foot in a store. Almost two in five (36%) Internet users now visit price comparison sites.
Service and knowledge
Consumers now expect good service as standard to make shopping as easy as possible. With consumers more confident than ever before, they are happy to vote with their wallets if service is not up to scratch: a recent pan-European survey by Kurt Salmon Associates suggested that 21% of consumers leave shops empty-handed because of poor service. Electrical and hardware stores increasingly insist that their salespeople have inside-out knowledge of the products as standard. The Genius Bar at Apple stores is proving a major draw for new and existing customers – sitting down in a relaxed atmosphere, receiving information or even trying out the products.
These were just some facts as examples to underline the concept which we have developed for the new EASY Issue of PERCEPTIONS.
These facts also make clear, that the EASY concept has nothing to do with another re-interpretation of the phrase „less is more�? – as seen in the 90s. Simplification does not equal mere reduction.
On the contrary: comprehensibility, easy-handling and clearly obvious functions require an optimum rapport between technical perfection and human needs.
As in past editions, also the EASY Issue provides yet again a wide spectrum of ideas, tools and components, techniques, methods and metaphors which can be utilized simultaneously – aided by the various multi-sensory and interconnected levels inherent to PERCEPTIONS.
Each colour, every photograph, each film, every sound and fragrance, the ideas and reflections about eating and drinking and even the material samples on the displays, are intended to stimulate and encourage creativity.
Here are some examples which illustrate the direct relations between the zeitgeist interpretations, and the colours and materials we have developed and selected.
USE – The Sovereignty of Function.
How important is the function of a product – compared to its other attributes? An analysis of the immediate interface between aesthetics and utility.
- plain and delicate surfaces
- refined structures
- lightness and stability
- milky translucence
- clean, tactile, distinctive
- technical textiles
- special treatments (anti-bacterial, anti-flammable, lotus effect …)
- compact foams and plastics
The colour palette shows analogies to the material colours. The overall material and colour mood is characterized by cool, a bit technical and clean and surfaces, which even become more beautiful and distinctive after long-term use.
FORM – The Emancipation of Character.
The central issues here are the practical, representative, semantic and general aesthetic aspects required for developing shapes, forms, surfaces and decoration.
- smooth and semi-glossy surfaces
- second skin, coatings and coverings
- opaque versus transparent
- matt versus shiny
- plain and stable
- structured surfaces (grainy, embossed, engraved, laser modified …)
- compressed granules
- soft touch
- sculptural memory
A delightful tension between natural elegance and man-made perfection, strength and sculptural memory, generous surface and micro detailing, shape and detail.
LINK – The Freedom of Interaction.
How can we make non-verbal communication between the user and the product easier? The interface is the gateway between functionality and usefulness, the relationship between rationality and intuition.
- alienated surfaces
- fibrous look
- thread layering
- open construction
- clear material message
- repetitive patterns
- heat sensitive
- reflective or absorbent (light, heat …)
- heat and light sensitive membranes
- even fake materials are honest
- glamorous shimmer
- mysterious glow
Materials which seem to transport messages, between static and adaptable, characterizing the product appearance, supporting the product interface.
KEEP – The Sense of Evolution.
The balance between status and innovation, the past and the future, man and technology, resources and consumerism, authenticity and modernity… industrial strategies concerned with sustaining the quality of life.
- conserved natural fragments
- framed materials: light but stable
- laminates and agglomerates
- encrusting, collage, assemblage
- surprising applications (i.e. fabrics made from paper or steel)
- optimally specialized
- imperfect beauty
- irregular surfaces
A natural but clean appearance, no high-tech without human touch, warm and sympathetic, calculated imperfectness.
PULSE – The Spirit of Energy.
A discourse about immaterial design criteria. The charisma of products, creating emotions with shape and form, surface, fragrance, touch and sound. Using associations as rational and emotional bridges between the product and the user.
- illusionistic, glamorous
- ambivalent, eclectic, electrifying
- magic materials with an aura
- shimmering and gleaming
- crystalline structures
- playing with light and special effects
- kaleidoscopic textures
- surprising optical illusions
- unexpected touch
Don’t be afraid of eclecticism! A magic and capturing material atmosphere, well-calculated contrasts, flattering harmonies, touching our souls.
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