The mobile phone was never a great place for durable design; the market was evolving extremely quickly. Durable design is for single function devices; things like axes and musical instruments and toasters and so on. Why would anyone want this product in 2019?
Durable Design (2017)
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Re: Durable Design (2017)
#32Honestly, there’s another explanation that I think makes a lot more sense even though it’s less beautiful : the product team wasn’t sure they wanted to ship a battery with the device in the first place. Or at least they wanted to keep the option of shipping the device without a battery. Removing the battery makes the device cheaper (you can also remove the power brick if any) and removes a supplier from the chain. Ke…
It's also a pragmatic move for a mobile device which might need to work for long periods of time away from power sources. As strange as it may seem to some of us, not everyone has a USB port available at all times. You could take one of these things and a couple of packs of AA batteries on a camping trip without worrying about finding a power point. Similarly, Windows Mixed Reality VR controllers run off AA batteries…
Oculus Rift S controllers run off a single AA each as well.
It's a good choice though led to us going through AA's at a horrible rate in our house.
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also a pragmatic move for a mobile device which might need to work for long periods of time away from power sources. As strange as it may seem to some of us, not everyone has a USB port available at all times. You could take one of these things and a couple of packs of AA batteries on a camping trip without worrying about finding a power point. Similarly, Windows Mixed Reality VR controllers run off AA batteries…
Oculus Rift S controllers run off a single AA each as well. It's a good choice though led to us going through AA's at a horrible rate in our house.
It's actually remarkable how closely the Rift S has followed in WMR's footsteps. I'd be curious to know how Lenovo has managed the risk of infringing Microsoft's IP (and likewise the risk of being implicated in any possible cases of Microsoft treading on Oculus' toes), given the similarities and their prior experience with WMR.
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also a pragmatic move for a mobile device which might need to work for long periods of time away from power sources. As strange as it may seem to some of us, not everyone has a USB port available at all times. You could take one of these things and a couple of packs of AA batteries on a camping trip without worrying about finding a power point. Similarly, Windows Mixed Reality VR controllers run off AA batteries…
Oculus Rift S controllers run off a single AA each as well. It's a good choice though led to us going through AA's at a horrible rate in our house.
> going through AA's at a horrible rate in our house
You can buy rechargeable AA batteries[0,1] though. I only have those at home (toothbrush, remotes, etc.).
[0] https://www.energizer.com/batteries/energizer-rechargeable-b...
[1] https://www.duracell.fr/product/duracell-rechargeable-ultra-...
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#35Are there any established companies that design products like this? Every story I see about consumer friendly design is either the first product from a company that stopped being consumer friendly down the line, or the only product from a company that's now dead.
I'd say ThinkPad. Almost 30 years of establishment and yet it's easy to open, upgrade, replace and recycle.
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#36"When an escalator breaks down, it becomes a set of stairs" I heard this a while back from somewhere and it's something i've taken forward when trying to design complex systems in code. Where possible fallbacks and fail safes should be part of the design, not after thoughts. Nice article.
>"When an escalator breaks down, it becomes a set of stairs"
That's one of Mitch Hedberg more famous "one-liner" jokes:
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#37That is a clever solution to a common problem with battery powered devices. Another benefit to the engineering side is that designing a custom battery is hard - you need to work closely with the battery vendor on the mechanical package and the electrical interface. The final battery may not have been available when the first prototypes were out! So having a AA option made it easy to test.
With the battery products I have been part of developing we had a wire lead from the battery which made the mechanical interface more modular. This was not a handheld device however, so the trade-offs are different. Blade or similar contacts are more user-friendly and reliable for many insert cycles.
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#38Honestly, there’s another explanation that I think makes a lot more sense even though it’s less beautiful : the product team wasn’t sure they wanted to ship a battery with the device in the first place. Or at least they wanted to keep the option of shipping the device without a battery. Removing the battery makes the device cheaper (you can also remove the power brick if any) and removes a supplier from the chain. Ke…
I think another possible explanation is that the battery was probably designed and developed in parallel with the camera itself - so during initial prototype testing they could pop in AA's even if the final battery was not available yet.
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#39I don't quite buy this romantic image of an engineer trying to fight for the people still using the device in 10 years time - I really doubt this was designed so that it could be used after the lithium battery completely died.
More likely it was designed so you could use some batteries that you can buy anywhere in the world when you are out and about traveling/vacationing and the battery is flat.
I work at a fairly major place you've all heard of with a reputation for software engineering excellence etc. One of the engineering managers said something to me the other day: "You know, we engineers here at write our software with this idea that it needs to be extensible and flexible enough to handle anything, like it's going to be around forever. In reality a project only lasts 3 or 4 years, maybe 5 before it is deprecated, replaced, or shutdown. Imagine how much more we'd get done if we were more pragmatic and not obsessed with future-proofing something we know will be replaced soon"? Food for thought.
Re: Durable Design (2017)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oculus Rift S controllers run off a single AA each as well. It's a good choice though led to us going through AA's at a horrible rate in our house.
> going through AA's at a horrible rate in our house You can buy rechargeable AA batteries[0,1] though. I only have those at home (toothbrush, remotes, etc.). [0] https://www.energizer.com/batteries/energizer-rechargeable-b... [1] https://www.duracell.fr/product/duracell-rechargeable-ultra-...
Eneloops are a high quality AA option. Standard choice for flashlight nerds.