Nathan Zeldes blogs on everyday product design
New article on my History of Computing site: Elisha Kally’s water flow calculator, a sophisticated network calculator based on the Hazen-Williams formula.
This ingenious slide rule can calculate flows and hydraulic head losses in complicated networks comprising up to six different pipes, all at once.
Here is the control panel of a counter-top cold/hot Tami 4 water bar. Push a button – you get hot water. Push another – here’s a refreshing cup of cold water.
But… which button?!
Of course, that’s why the buttons – all seven of them, for there’s a lot more you can make this glorified water faucet do – are labeled! The problem is, only one – wisely perhaps, the one labeled “Extra hot” – can be easily read. The others have the label printed on mirror-like shiny surfaces in light gray, which means you need just the right angle of lighting and viewing to make the text out at all. See the photo – the legends on the right are visible (though at very low contrast) while of the two on the left the top one is just barely readable and the bottom one is totally invisible.
They say writing was invented in the fertile crescent in the 4th millennium BC… but we had to wait till our day and age to invent invisible writing.
Yuck!…
Form, they say, follows function… which leads to many utilitarian everyday products. But every now and then you run into a design detail that shows inspired abuse of this principle: some unknown designer decides that the product also needs to be lovely, or unconventional, or humorous.
Here’s an example I’ve come across: a drain cover in a very basic drinking fountain.
They could have made this piece the usual way, with regular slits or holes. But the designer felt this circle of funny fishes trying to eat each other will be more pleasing to the thirsty user.
It was pleasing to me – and I wish the anonymous designer with the sense of humor all the best!
I saw the… whatever… below in Hackney, London, and can’t resist sharing it with you.
Is this a weird whatever-it-is or what? 🙂
