San Francisco studio Fuseproject has created a concept for a wearable device to allow people in the developing world to test themselves for symptoms of chronic illnesses such as malaria without having to visit a doctor (+ slideshow).
Kernel of Life would allow users to test their own blood, saliva, urine or breath and transmit the results to doctors via a mobile phone.
Patients would communicate with doctors remotely via an app on the smartphone. “Kernel is our answer to the complications of treating chronic illnesses in the developing world, malaria in particular,” said Yves Behar of Fuseproject.
“When the nearest doctor is days away, both treatment and diagnosis can be accomplished through the cloud-based and embedded medical test that Kernel offers.”
Fuseproject developed the concept in response to a brief from Microsoft owner Bill Gates’ charity the Gates Foundation and Wired magazine, who invited four leading design firms to create prototypes for products that could help improve the lives of people in the developing world.
To use the device, users rotate the circular cover to reveal a micro-perforated pad, divided into four colour-coded quadrants to match the different types of biosamples that could be gathered.
“The four quadrant bio-sensing absorbent pad can test the blood, saliva, urine and breath,” said Behar. “Test results are transmitted via bluetooth to a mobile app allowing patients to be continuously monitored remotely via the cloud, with reminders such as medicine intake or doctor’s visits.”
A built-in sterilising pad would clean the sampling surface when the cover is closed. The device, which can be worn around the neck, also monitors the user’s temperature.
The sensor technology required to make the Kernel of Life is currently too expensive and not robust enough for its intended application, but Fuseproject predicts it could be perfected in five to ten years.
L’agence Fuseproject, lancé par Yves Behar, a imaginé en partenariat avec la start-up Briggo une nouvelle expérience pour choisir et se servir un café. Appelé « Coffee Haus », ce kiosque permet grâce à un application mobile de choisir sa boisson favorite. A découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.
The latest version of the affordable XO tablet, designed by Yves Behar for the One Laptop Per Child Association, goes on sale this week (+ movie).
The seven-inch touchscreen Android tablet will be available for $150 at Walmart stores across the USA this week, marking a move away from the product’s initial focus on the developing world.
The new version features a rubber exterior and a carrying hook, while the bilingual English/Spanish software comes with a suite of pre-loaded apps, games and books.
The XO tablet is the fourth iteration of the One Laptop Per Child concept, all of which have been designed by One Laptop Per Child’s chief designer, Yves Behar of San Francisco design studio fuseproject.
The first, nicknamed the “$100 laptop”, was a clamshell design with a keyboard that could be charged by hand-crank and was intended for children in remote villages without power.
“The new tablet is an evolution of all the things we have learned with the original XO Laptop,” says Yves Behar. “The new user interface is colourful and easy to use, while the protective rubber exterior features a carrying loop similar to the original XO finger hooks.”
FUSEPROJECT AND ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD ANNOUNCE NEW XO TABLET DESIGNED TO SPARK THE CHILD’S IMAGINATION
The fuseproject-designed XO Tablet arrives in Walmart stores across the country this week. Developed in collaboration with the One Laptop Per Child Association, the tablet harnesses the power of a touchscreen device to create new ways for children to learn. The powerful Android tablet has a new user interface and protective cover that delivers the continuity of the design language of the original One Laptop Per Child with a new learning experience.
Centered around the idea of aspirational “dreams”, the main screen is organized by topics rather than applications. A clear hierarchy of information makes tiers of learning within each dream easy to follow and access, a key element of the new child-centric XO Learning System Interface. A simple sentence “I want to be an…” is the opener to a myriad of software, games, and applications grouped around each of the subjects of interest.
“The new tablet is an evolution of all the things we have learned with the original XO Laptop,” says Yves Behar, fuseproject founder and Chief Designer of OLPC since 2006. “The new user interface is colorful and easy to use, while the protective rubber exterior features a carrying loop similar to the original XO finger hooks. What is unique about this version is how we crafted the user interface and the industrial design simultaneously. We wanted to make sure that together they would deliver a cohesive experience while stimulating discovery and offering a few surprises.”
The seven-inch tablet, made by Vivitar, is running Android OS, and is the only multilingual (English/Spanish) and Google-certified tablet for kids on the market. It includes content curated and selected for age-appropriateness by OLPC in collaboration with Common Sense Media, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents and teachers make informed decisions about media.
The pre-loaded software includes 100 free pre-loaded apps, games, and books. Special parental controls such as the XO Journal tool, allow parents to track how much time children spend on each app and can provide insight into where children’s interests lie.
The One Laptop Per Child Association has distributed 2.5 million of the original XO Laptop in 60 countries, and is now launching the new $150 tablet in the US starting at Walmart, as well as in developing countries such as Uruguay, Cambodia, and Barbados.
Designer Yves Behar of San Francisco studio Fuseproject has launched his OUYA open-source game console.
Fuseproject developed OUYA with technology start-up Boxer8 for open-source gaming on a TV, allowing developers to make their own games and tweak the hardware as they wish.
The anodised aluminium console designed by Behar is much smaller than rival devices thanks to the layout of components inside, which creates natural airflow and uses the aluminium as a heat-sink so a fan isn’t needed.
“The radically small scale of the console allows it to live discretely anywhere,” says Fuseproject. “Whether in the kitchen or the game room, the console’s small profile ensures it will stand as an accent rather than an eye sore.”
OUYA controller and console
Handles on the controller are also made of aluminium and frame a central touch-pad. “The use of authentic materials such as the aluminum is a quality and innovative approach not generally associated with gaming,” explains the studio.
Behar’s case includes a lid and a spring-loaded button to access the internal components, so the shell can easily be switched. The blueprints are available on Thingiverse, the online design database operated by 3D-printer firm MakerBot (see our earlier story).
OUYA runs on Google’s Android operating system and games will also be open-source and free, or available as a free trial.
“Both the interface and hardware are truly open, available to be hacked, changed and built upon in a real way. It is gaming for the people,” says Fuseproject.
OUYA user interface
The development of OUYA was funded through Kickstarter, with supporters pledging £5.6 million in exchange for first access to the console, making it the second-highest earning project in the crowdfunding website’s history.
OUYA is on a mission to bring gaming back to the TV, in an open and accessible way. From the design of the hardware to the user interface, from the logo to the name “OUYA”, as creative co-founders, we built a holistic brand. The product and experience is designed to be simple and bold, using high quality materials and ergonomics, all the while remaining affordable, truly embodying OUYA’s open platform.
Inspired by the indie gaming movement that has gained momentum over the last few years, OUYA partnered with fuseproject with a dream: open sourced gaming, built for the TV. We wanted to bring gaming back to its essence, moving away from the big companies that churn out predictable and formulaic games, excluding the developers and gamers who crave a different experience. Kickstarter gave us the unique opportunity to both harness the excitement and energy around a fresh new gaming experience and raise awareness about the product within the industry and beyond. After raising over $2.5 million in 24 hours, OUYA went on to raise over $8 million.
The OUYA hardware is designed for the utmost functionality in a clean, beautiful package. The radically small scale of the console allows it to live discretely anywhere; whether in the kitchen or the game room, the console’s small profile ensures it will stand as an accent rather than an eye sore. To achieve this, we laid out the internal components of the console to create a natural airflow without the use of a fan, allowing the console to retain its small and discreet profile. Also, the anodized aluminum material acts as a heat-sink and disperses heat produced by the components.
OUYA branding
With the design of the controller, we focused on feel and ergonomics to make a great tool for playing games. After dozens of form studies and over 50 structural prototypes, we achieved the optimal shape for the highest level of comfort and ease of use. On the surface, three vertical material areas organize the buttons visually and frame the controller’s unique touch pad. Using consumer feedback and research insight to guide our design, each button was sculpted and tuned to provide a highly functional experience. The O,U,Y,A controller buttons are laid out to correspond directly with the user interface in both order and color. From the tactile and cool to the touch aluminum handle areas, to the surface indentation on the analog sticks, to the shape and feel of the triggers, the OUYA controller is designed for optimal gaming.
OUYA’s hardware reflects a belief that quality can be affordable, and that craft is as identifiable in a well made game as it is in the product’s physical experience. The console form plays off the brand’s graphic elements in a fun, gestural fashion. Finally, the use of authentic materials such as the aluminum is a quality and innovative approach not generally associated with gaming, it ties the product offering together in an iconic way.
The OUYA user interface is at once simple and bold, standing apart from competitors while clearly communicating what OUYA is all about: individuality, openness and fun. The experience employs horizontal parallax scrolling in homage to classic games like Sonic and Super Mario. While working to create a sense of depth, the movement brings distinction to the medium. This type of navigation is not traditionally used in gaming experiences, but its roots in gaming history make it familiar. It immediately feels like a return to something great, to the essence of gaming that has been diluted over time.
The interface is graphically dynamic, and its prominent typography serves as a visual compass, always letting the user know where they are in the experience. The hierarchy the typography establishes makes the experience intuitive for newcomers and experienced gamers alike. From the user experience through the gamer’s interaction with the physical components, OUYA succeeds as a holistic experience. OUYA’s distinct mission of creating an open universe for gamers and developers alike lead to the building of a smart and adaptive system that brings the user closer to the experience they crave. Both the interface and hardware are truly open, available to be hacked, changed and built upon in a real way. It is “gaming for the people”.
Product news: Yves Behar’s San Francisco studio Fuseproject launches an office furniture system for American design brand Herman Miller at the Neocon trade fair in Chicago this week (+ slideshow).
Called Public Office Landscape, the modular design by Fuseproject for Herman Miller aims to encourage spontaneous conversations and continuous collaboration between employees.
Rather than design desks for individuals interspersed with pockets of collaborative meeting areas, Behar wanted to spread collaboration evenly throughout the office.
The designers came up with three main concepts: social desks for individuals to work in configurations that encourage interaction, group spaces for focussed collaboration and spaces in between that facilitate casual interactions and community.
The resulting modular system features seating elements that flow into desks and soft fabrics that flow into hard surfaces.
Fuseproject used the prototypes at their own office in San Francisco, testing and evolving the various elements in-situ over the course of 18 months.
Public Office Landscape brings fluidity, variety, ergonomics to social seating in order to help people feel engaged, focused, and collaborative
I began thinking about the need for casual, collaborative office seating three years ago, when I was in Cologne for the Orgatec furniture show. I was walking with Don Goeman — Herman Miller’s Executive Vice President of Research, Development, and Design — when he stopped to point out a couch with sectionals made from large blocks of foam. It seemed like the designer of the couch had thought to himself, “big chunks of foam say comfort!”.
A year later, when Herman Miller asked me and my team at fuseproject to develop a more effective office environment for collaboration, I saw an opportunity to go beyond the superficial approach to social seating design I had observed a year earlier. I wanted to create a design that would support a more flexible, fluid way of working while addressing the very human need for interaction.
With research showing that 70 percent of collaboration happens at a workstation, I saw a clear need for desks that support interaction. This led to our concept for Social Desking for individuals, Group spaces to allow collaboration in proximity, and Interstitial spaces which are solutions which convert spaces in between into community space for casual interactions — a set of ideas that would ultimately become Public Office Landscape.
This system of shared surfaces would be inviting to guests, have no implied hierarchy, and offer collaborative zones spread evenly throughout the floor plan. The idea of integrated spaces for casual meetings went against the traditional thinking that individual and social work habits need to be separated. We believe collaboration doesn’t just happen in conference rooms— it happens everywhere. Public proposes collaborative areas in close proximity to individual workstations and addresses this disconnect and encourages the type of productive interaction that drives organizations forward.
As we worked with Herman Miller to bring our vision for Public Office Landscape to life, we were able to test our ideas and prototypes at our new office in San Francisco. We injected ourselves into the design process and inhabited evolving versions of the furniture for 18 months — literally growing every part of the vast system, while researching and evaluating variations, and refining the design.
The result of our work is a system that achieves an ideal state of flow in the office. Public Office Landscape encourages fluid interactions and spontaneous conversations with seating elements that flow into desks, and with soft fabrics that flow into hard surfaces. These designs culminate in a choice of focused and collaborative places to work. All of this variety helps people feel engaged, focused, and free to move between tasks without interruption. With the support of elements like the Social Chair — the first of its kind to introduce ergonomics into collaborative seating — people can feel good while doing some of their best work.
There is no technical reason why offices are needed today. In theory, we could all be working from home, remotely checking in when needed. The reason why people still want to go to an office, is to collaborate with others. Public Office Landscape offers a better way of working together with solutions that we believe will be increasingly relevant. Public addresses collaboration not in moments, but as movement. It is designed with collaboration spread evenly throughout the space, while the system’s modular components can evolve with the needs of groups and individuals. And with a variety of ergonomic and collaborative elements to enhance fluidity in the workplace, the system will continue to support the ways people want to work.
Herman Miller’s Living Office
Living Office is a different approach to managing people and their work, the tools and products that enable that work, and the places where people come together to do it. Together with Yves Behar’s fuseproject, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, and Studio 7.5, Herman Miller is expanding its offering of human-centered elements to create a total work experience that is more natural and desirable, and within it the opportunity for individuals and organisations to achieve a new dynamic of shared prosperity. Built on what is fundamental to all humans, Living Office will help both people and their organizations to update their places, tools, and the management of the workplace, to uniquely express and enable shared character and purpose.
Industrial designer Yves Behar of Fuseproject has unveiled a television set-top box that includes a remote control with no buttons (+ slideshow).
Designed by Fuseproject for American company Fanhattan, The Fan TV system allows users to search live cable TV channels as well as recorded shows and streaming services through one interface, so they can easily find something they’d like to watch regardless of whether it’s on cable or the internet.
The two parts are styled like pebbles and automatically align when stacked thanks to concealed magnets.
The Bluetooth remote control has a smooth touchpad with 200 sensors so users can navigate menus, change channels and control volume settings, without looking down, through a series of swipes and taps.
It’s deliberately not possible to just punch in channel numbers, but there is an on-screen keyboard for search.
The user interface design departs from the usual grids and time slots of TV menus, instead offering users a way to explore by scrolling through genres, actors, channels, what’s trending or what friends have recommended on social media.
A search for a specific show might bring up options for the latest episode being broadcast now, episodes from this series that have been saved to the cloud-based storage and episodes from past series available to stream, plus reviews and soundtracks.
Fanhattan already has an app for search and discovery of TV shows for streaming and this week made public a web service. The Fan TV device, however, will rely on partnerships with cable TV companies that have not yet been announced, though the device is scheduled to become available later this year.
“Everything about Fan TV is about cohesiveness between hardware and user interface,” says Fuseproject. “While others still look at these elements separately, Fanhattan and Fuseproject partnered at every step of the creative process to build the ultimate entertainment experience.”
Television and movies have been stuck by hardware and interfaces that are frustrating un-designed experiences. Fan TV has crafted the deepest and most magical experience, an easy and cinematic way to discover and watch all content.
At fuseproject, we have worked incessantly for the last two years to build a cohesive physical experience as well, a set top box and remote that change the game. The remote has no buttons and a touch surface, fits in the hand and is small in size. The cable box and the remote look like two pebbles, they physically connect through magnetic touch points that magically re-align both parts.
At its core, Fan TV is about you – about fans getting the most out of their entertainment. Instead of a clunky cable box or DVR system hidden in the cabinet, Fan TV is designed for display. The small remote responds to the subtlest touch, simply tap or swipe to navigate your movies and shows.
Mimicking nestled stones, the box and remote fit together with the use of magnets, ensuring the remote has a place where it can be found again.
Our branding work and our industrial design is influenced by the simplicity of the offering, a zen-like experience that stimulates discovery through a cinematic looking database of all the world’s movies and shows. The magical touch interface on the remote, the simplicity of the packaging, and the way all of these elements come together. Whether it is your favorite new TV show or old movie, Fan TV strips away any complications and just lets you watch.
Yves Behar’s San Francisco studio Fuseproject has designed a glass bottle and identity for a scheme that encourages hotels to filter water on site rather than importing it in plastic bottles.
The Whole World Water project hooks up hospitality and catering companies with a firm that provides on-site filtration services for tap water so they can eliminate unnecessary food miles and plastic wastage while saving money.
Ten percent of the proceeds will be donated to help people around the world without access to clean drinking water. The organisers hope to raise $1 billion annually.
Fuseproject created a logo with rounded w-shapes linked to resemble continuous waves. This debossed symbol provides a tactile grip on the tapered bottle, which is made of thick glass with a recycled aluminium top.
“The uncomplicated form aspires to express the clear proposition of the Whole World Water concept and the purity of the water itself that is filtered on site,” says Fuseproject. “Good design accelerates the adoption of new important ideas, and this is one of these ideas where everybody wins.”
“The black type is strong, elegant and promotes a sense of urgency,” the designers continue. “The collateral work is equally retrained, laying out facts and figures about the cause in clear and inspiring ways.”
The classic blue Nivea tin inspired an overhaul of the skincare brand’s packaging by San Franscisco-based designer Yves Béhar and his studio fuseproject.
Yves Béhar chose to reflect Nivea’s trademark circular blue tin in the rounded contours and simplified blue and white colour scheme of the new packaging. It can also be seen in the round lids, which tilt upwards and are embossed with the Nivea logo.
“I was particularly drawn to this design project by the vast emotional potential of the Nivea brand and its 100 year heritage,” explained Béhar.
Hamburg, January 15, 2013 – The blue tin has embodied NIVEA’s brand values since 1925. It is the brand ‘face’ that consumers around the world associate with trust, closeness and expertise. Now Beiersdorf AG has introduced a new global design language based on the iconic blue tin. The new design consistently translates the successful NIVEA brand’s values into a product that consumers can see and feel, thereby making products in all categories immediately recognisable. Beiersdorf has consistently developed the NIVEA brand with a focus on its global core values.
The gradual introduction of the new design for the entire NIVEA skin and body care portfolio will commence in more than 200 countries in January 2013.
‘NIVEA stands for skin care, trust, quality and value for money. These are the values that our consumers all over the world appreciate. We have to ensure that our brand identity reflects these values, one aspect of which is our product design,’ explained Ralph Gusko, executive board member for brands at Beiersdorf. “Around two-thirds of all purchase decisions are made at the shelf. The new NIVEA design’s high recognition value will make it easier for consumers around the world to find the NIVEA products they are looking for. The consistent design language across all channels – from product packaging, through point of sale to advertising – also increases consumer identification with the brand and encourages them to additionally use products in other categories,” continued Gusko.
The new design delivers additional functional and emotional value
Internationally renowned industrial designer Yves Béhar joined forces with the Beiersdorf Design Management team at his San Francisco-based fuseproject studio to create a new, unique and innovative design language that embodies the NIVEA brand values. The blue NIVEA tin wasn’t just the basis of the design, but also a source of inspiration to the designers. The crème tin is used as a logo, reflected in the rounded contours of the new packagings and in the reduced blue and white colors of the new design. The round lid, which tilts towards the consumer, embossed with the NIVEA logo, has obvious similarities with the iconic blue tin and it provides customers with a “familiar face” on the shelf.
“Design is important because it adds value to an object’s function,” said Béhar. The multiple award-winning industrial designer is committed to “developing products that aren‟t just functional, but which also enhance the consumer experience and appeal to their emotions”. “Unlike many other skin care brands, NIVEA isn’t geared to a specific culture, gender or age group. I was particularly drawn to this design project by the vast emotional potential of the NIVEA brand and its 100-year heritage,” continued Béhar.
The first consumer tests confirm that the development team’s efforts were worthwhile because consumers – especially in the growth markets of Asia and South America – rated the new design line as very good.
A consistent NIVEA design language increases brand identification
“The new NIVEA design language was created from the ground up to offer consumers a tangible experience of our brand values before they even open the packaging. It’s pure and authentic – like the brand itself,” explained Ralph Gusko.
Since 1911 consumers around the globe have associated NIVEA with skin care and it is one of the most well-known brands in the world. More than half a billion people around the globe trust in NIVEA, the highest-selling skin care brand of all. Skin care is the fastest growing segment in the global cosmetics market. The new design language is an aspect of the new overall brand strategy focusing on sustainable and profitable growth for the NIVEA product family which was recently announced by CEO Stefan F. Heidenreich.
News: industrial designer Yves Behar believes his revamped SodaStream can save 2000 bottles a year – but a TV advert promoting its green credentials has been banned in the UK for alleged “denigration” of rival products (+ watch the ad).
The banned ad, which was due to launch on ITV1 last night, carries the tag “If you love the bubbles set them free” and features crates of soft drinks exploding each time the SodaStream is used to carbonate still water.
Clearcast, which monitors and approves TV advertising in the UK, said: “Clearcast were unable to approve the recent SodaStream ad because in our view, its visual treatment denigrated other soft drinks which put it in breach of the BCAP [Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice] code (Rule 3.42).”
Clearcast added: “Environmental issues were not relevant to that decision.”
The BCAP code states that: “Advertisements must not discredit or denigrate another product, advertiser or advertisement or a trade mark, trade name or other distinguishing mark.
“This decision is absurd,” said SodaStream UK managing director Fiona Hope. “We have neither named nor disparaged any of our competitors in the industry and cannot see how this makes any sense.”
Hope added: “Through the ad, we are simply displaying an alternative way to living more sustainably and illustrating one of our product’s benefits – the reduction of plastic bottle wastage. The consumer should be allowed to make their own decisions about how to live their lives and the products to choose. This decision appears to put the sensitivities of the world’s soft drinks giants ahead of concern for the environment. We will continue to fight this decision with Clearcast and will push to reverse this decision.”
“It really works well in this day and age when we are trying to reduce our consumption of plastic bottles,” Behar said in the interview and said the average US household would save 2,000 bottles per year if they used a SodaStream instead of buying carbonated drinks. In the UK the annual saving would be 550 bottles.
The 30-second ad, which has already aired in the United States, Sweden and Australia, was due to premiere during I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here yesterday evening.
Clearcast said it would work with SodaStream to agree a revised script.
Developing hardware and software at the same time is design’s “new frontier”, according to industrial designer Yves Behar. Speaking to Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs at 100% Design yesterday, the industrial designer said bringing 3D designers and interface designers together was “a whole new blue ocean” adding, “Apple is actually a little bit behind in that area.” (+ audio)
“What I’ve been really interested in is, when these things get designed together, as one, really new interesting paradigms, really new interesting experiences are happening,” said Behar. “And let me say just one thing; probably it’s going to be a little bit provocative: nobody is really doing that today. Even Apple is designing their product and their software separately.”
Behar rejected the “skeumorphic” approach adopted by companies including Apple, which has led to the grainy leather-effect Calendar and wood-effect bookshelf applications in its products.
User-interface designers have typically attempted to evoke familiar real-world objects when designing digital applications such as calendars, books and diaries, arguing that this approach leads to more intuitive interfaces that users feel more comfortable with.
Behar questioned why those same companies’ hardware designers rejected the skeumorphic approach and said it was akin to getting one industrial design team to design the outside of a chair and another to design the inside.
“You could use the exact same explanation for a hardware product,” Behar said. “You could say “I don’t know what a tablet is, I’ve never used a tablet. Let’s make it look like a book. Or let’s make it look like my leather-bound notepad. Obviously they didn’t go there with the hardware so why did they go there with the software? It’s a really good question. There’s now many companies looking at it in a way that’s quite interesting and Apple actually is a little bit behind in that area.”
Behar has set up a user interface group at his San Francisco design studio Fuseproject to explore how to bring the two disciplines together. “That’s a whole new blue ocean for us as designers, it’s a new frontier,” he said.
Dezeen’s Marcus Fairs is also hosting Dezeen Live at 100% Design daily. Today’s show starts at 5pm in the auditorium and will feature talks from Dominic Wilcox, Asif Khan and Daniel Charny plus a DJ/musical performance featuring Dezeen Music Project.
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