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Technology Science

2005 IDEA Awards 54

Posted by Zonk from the good-show dept.
prostoalex writes "Every year Industrial Design Excellence Awards are given to the products in such categories as Business & Industrial Products, Computer Equipment, Consumer Products, Design Explorations, Design Strategy, Digital Media & Interfaces, Environments, Furniture, Medical & Scientific Equipment, Packaging & Graphics, Research, Student Designs, Transportation. Business Week is running a 158-page slideshow that features 2005 IDEA recipients."
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2005 IDEA Awards More

2005 IDEA Awards

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  • I have admired the almost Mac-like look of the Netgear routers and noticed that they were a 2005 gold winner. However, I'm not really crazy about Alienware design and they won a silver.
    • I agree, the Alienware design is just... Ugh.. It's bulky, unnecessarily imposing and basically blobby. Still there might be some under the hood engineering which warrants its medal. Nonetheless, I'd refuse to have a computer that looked like that, I'd feel like a Boy Racer.
    • I personally dislike NetGear. Their designs are cool, but their functionality is less than satisfactory, to me anyway.

  • Anybody else.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by hyfe ( 641811 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @08:49AM (#12973240)
    Was anybody else wondering why swedish furniture companies were giving out awards when they first read the headline?
    • Not IDEA. You can read the reason to why here [wikipedia.org].

      I wouldn't have been too surprised if IKEA would be giving design awards though (it has been widely spreading design furniture to a wider audience) , if it wasn't for that the company is as cheap (as in won't spend money on something that's not entirely necessary) as possible. Ingvar Kamprad has even once said "If I'm worried some one will copy our designs? Nah. If someone thinks they can beat us on price, they are very welcome to give it a try..." :)

    • Nah, I was wondering how many of those ideas are patented, and will be sued into oblivion.

    • Was anybody else wondering why swedish furniture companies were giving out awards when they first read the headline?

      Actually, I wondered why a well-known Java IDE was giving out awards...

  • A few good ones... (Score:3, Funny)

    by intmainvoid ( 109559 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @08:50AM (#12973242)
    There's some real design speak going on here - This is a fine piece of research--thoughtfully designed, deeply instrumented, and genuinely interesting in asking and answering important questions.

    The item earning this fine praise - a showerhead! [businessweek.com]

    • Re:A few good ones... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @08:58AM (#12973256)
      It gets better

      This research enabled designers to have a deeper understanding of the many aspects of the showering experience, including extensive observations of people showering

      Who would have though that watching women soaping their breasts in the shower was research. Ha eat that all you wankers who called me a voyeuristic perv, I am officially a scientist. The thing now is to get a grant to further my obesession, I mean research.
      • it's also possible that they just tape recorded the shower users to try to develop a showerhead shape that improved the acoustics. god knows most of us need all the help we can get
      • The thing now is to get a grant to further my obesession, I mean research.

        I do not know if that was intentional or not, but it sure as hell was funny! ^_^
    • A few good ones, but I found most to be between "kinda neat I guess" and "boring"
      • that and the language they used. i disliked the overuse of terms like "aesthetic", "experience", and other apple-style buzzwords. (they've been around i know, but not so prevalent until more recently. i'm guessing the article was written by a mac enthusiast)

        and if that wasn't enough they add a splash of business lingo to the mix. capital.

        does everything have to look smooth, shiny, and modern? apparently it does if you're "innovative"

        sorry, i'm a big fan of plain and purposeful things. when they said indu

  • Mac Mini Powerful? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by BubbaMike ( 90258 )
    The Mac Mini is a nice design, no arguing there. But to call it powerful is a joke. 2 year old Pcs have more power and it pales next to the cheapest IMac, which, except for expandabilty is a really nice design.
    • Have you used one?

      I have one of the base models (1.25Ghz, 256MB RAM, 40GB HD) that I use for a small home server. I had thought that it would be dreadfully slow compared to my Powerbook, which is the very top of the line (or, well, was the top of the line).

      I was pleasantly suprised to find it was perfect for web, email, and word processing. It's even fast enough to use iPhoto.

      So while it's not powerful per se, it's good enough for almost everybody.

  • Matrix-looking monitor (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MC68040 ( 462186 )
    http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/06/idea2005/s ource/22.htm [businessweek.com]
    The description writes it out as jellyfish looking, all I can think of is the connectors that plug into peoples backs in the matrix :P
    • Fucking hell. If I owned one of those things I'd have nightmares about it.

      Can you imagine waking up one night and seeing it skittering under your bed? It'd be just like that bit from Aliens.
  • IDEA 2004 or 2000? anything in production or in the shelves?
  • IDEA Awards? as in CIA Agency?
  • I browsed through the furniture awards expecting to find goofy couches and uncomfortable chairs when I was surprised by a very cool toilet. http://www.idsa.org/idea/idea2005/g53.htm/ [idsa.org]

    What a sleek looking throne, I'm sure everybody here is jealous. No tank? Doesn't plug? CAN BE PLACED ANYWHERE????? Sounds like my dream toilet.
  • Before I got this [businessweek.com], I felt human, mortal and weak. Now I'm part of a powerful collective that assimilates all resistance and destroys entire dimensions.

    OK, I've been totally unfair to this product; anything that helps people to breathe and sleep is a good thing, even if it makes you look monstrous. I just wish the designer was less inspired by the work of [biwook.net] H. R. Giger
  • this one [businessweek.com] - I used this 'concept' at least 20 years ago. It really works, all you need is a wool thread.

  • Was that necessary? (Score:4, Funny)

    by the idoru ( 125059 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @11:19AM (#12973695)
    Was it really necessary to show the Vicks Digital Baby Rectal Thermometer [idsa.org] IN USE??!! I think we could have gotten a nice appreciation for its design without an action shot.
  • Interesting webslideshow, but often trying to figure out what a product does is next to impossible given the marketing claptrap that serves as the text. Like this:

    This product family of commercial HVAC sensors and room controllers was designed in response to the company's identified need for a new product line that conveys quality, reliability and accuracy and is suitable for use in both the American and European markets and a wide array of commercial applications. Following extensive research, the design
  • ... was the simplest: The pestle and mortar. ("Full Contact Spice Grinder" by Mint, Inc.)

  • With the contenders being mostly of the ones with minority counts of parts made in North American/EU countries, I'd still have to say the entire computer category has greatly lowered their standards to the point where even a Chinese Government run/funded company such as Lenovo can get in there with something that has an abysmal build quality at best. If only they'd separately considered North American/EU mfg's (that have used less than 40% of Asian designed high level and low level parts), then I'd give th
  • I wish they'd give more consideration to functionality for these awards. Don't get me wrong, I like things that are visually pleasing, but when something sacrifies functionality for asthetics, it's pretty lame.

    http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/06/idea2005/s ource/109.htm [businessweek.com]
    I was at the design museum, and while there's definitely some awesome things there, this staircase bothered me. It looks cool, but the steps are very dark, and I watched several people trip on their way up in the few minutes I was in

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