There’s a hidden radio concept design that’s been making the rounds. My friend Nathan sent it my way and said it reminded him of the unopenable mint container.
The radio’s volume is controlled by pulling up the lid, showing more speaker. It is tuned by twisting the entire lid. Once you know this, it’s wonderfully simple. Do you think it would be obvious to the first time user? Does that matter?
This radio removes too many features in the name of design. I want to be able to tune in a specific station without guessing. Without a dial or some other feedback, it would be difficult to quickly tune in a desired station. The LED is superfluous unless the station plays a lot of dead air. In other words, this is a difficult radio to operate.
Furthermore, a design that emphasizes lower frequencies as the sound increases contradicts human hearing properties.
None of my complaints implies this couldn’t be a commercial success. After all, Apple touted the simplicity of the defeatured Shuffle with no display nor easy way to choose a specific song.
I think this is too simplistic. Like Brent, I would like to tune to a particular station and I don’t see a straightforward way of doing that. If there were only two or three stations, this might work, but that’s usually not the case.
Also, I hope that lifting the lid doesn’t lift the whole thing.
Well, as a lover of radios and of my Tivoli I really think this works just fine. Sure it’s not as full featured and occasionally I miss having a few presets on my Tivoli but not enough to want a different one.
As for it being obvious to a first time user, I don’t think it will be, but it doesn’t matter. Spending a little time playing with it and you should “get it” right away.
I agree with Tom–simplicity is important, and communication with the user paramount, but this radio really invites interaction with it. Successful product design encourages play–and this is nothing if not playful.
I want one.