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.
San Francisco electronics brand Jawbone released the Mini Jambox as the smallest in its range of speakers, which can wirelessly connect with phones, laptops and other bluetooth devices to play music.
Jawbone’s creative director Yves Behar told Dezeen that the latest speaker was developed to make listening to music on the go a more communal activity.
“People’s experience of music is pretty selfish and very much focused on earphones,” said Behar. “I think now we expect speakers to be used everywhere, from underground to office settings.”
The speakers are made from extruded aluminium, reinventing the manufacturing process from the original Jambox to reduce the number of parts and assembly steps.
“You really have to develop some manufacturing techniques that are very, very advanced in order to make a product that is affordable,” Behar said.
A CNC machine was used to create five textured patterns on the front of the speaker and users can chose between nine different metallic colours.
The speaker is managed through an app, where Mini Jamboxes in range appear as icons in their colour and texture. Many users can connect to one Mini Jambox at a time, so everyone can contribute to the music they’re listening to.
“We play the game ‘who’s music is this?’,” said Behar. “Essentially [the Mini Jambox] becomes something that allows people to jump in and play their own music.”
Here is some additional information sent to us by Behar:
The Making of the Mini Jambox
The Mini Jambox is the latest entry in the category-leading family of Jawbone speakers. The original Jambox design ushered in the era of the wireless speaker with critical and commercial success. When we first explored what the Mini Jambox could be we dreamed of a very small and pocketable size, of an experience so simple and yet game changing, and of materials and processes so refined they had previously only been used in top-end audio products. Jawbone design goals are to seamlessly integrate technology and everyday life. Mini Jambox is built on the foundation that life is constantly moving; with Mini Jambox you can pick up and bring your sound environment with you. We call it pocketable sound.
The design explorations for Mini Jambox started with a blank sheet and the idea to completely re-invent the wireless speaker, as we knew it. “It’s a strange moment when everyone loves your last product, and yet you realise the next one will have to be conceived and re-invented as if we were designing it for the first time,” says Yves Behar, CCO of Jawbone.
The user-centred insight and starting point for Mini is that people love the small Jambox size, and yet they want to take the product with them without hesitation about size or weight, from a jacket pocket to a small handbag. Delivering clear, high quality sound in a small space requires a very rigid enclosure with inherent structural integrity. To fulfil this need we explored many roads. Eventually aluminium extrusions combined with a very advanced and patented assembly method became the clear winner. This new approach enabled us to achieve the most efficient use of space, as outer skin and structural skeleton are one and the same. Form and function are truly intersected, as the overall size is the smallest, yet the rigid acoustic cavity affords maximum volume for the sound chamber. The extrusion and material also confers Mini with the strength and robustness needed in a physical object made for portability.
“In order to innovate, we have to take a process and push it somewhere entirely new,” says Yves. The demanding pursuit of refining the aluminium extrusion into an entirely new construction and aesthetic took twelve months, flexing what might be possible with a mechanical engineering assembly that requires fewer parts and assembly steps, stewarding major leaps in production capabilities at scale. “The result is that the Mini exterior skin is also the internal skeleton, in one fluid gesture; we are not just wrapping internal components with a sexy package, the package is the sound chamber.”
The Jawbone design language has always pursued minimal construction and geometry, made personal through the integral use of relief textures that are both personal and tactile. On Mini, we are pushing the boundary of rough and fast CNC, typically used to machine mechanical internal details. We flip the use of this usually hidden process, employing it externally to reveal beautiful capabilities for textures. We used large CNC cutting bits programmed to sculpt a few marks in the aluminium at high speed; the resulting intersections create new unexpected patterns. The beautiful reliefs, enhanced by reflecting light on Mini, are the result of a craft methodology developed with small machine shop partners, requiring a deep collaboration between designers, machinists, and engineers.
The CNC process innovation has transformed what’s both possible and efficient in using aluminium. We turned CNC, an industrial process, into a brush we can paint with. Mini Jambox speakers’ highly specialised perforations and unique framework channel sound for clear, elegantly routed sound. Functionally driven design that is also expressive.
The five textures and nine anodised colours allow people to make Mini into their own personality. The textures also provide a tactile grip, and each of them is carefully matched to an anodised colour that shows aluminium relief best.
From the design to the user interface and packaging, we believe Mini Jambox is our crown jewel of Jawbone design and craft. “Every element goes back to the purest expression of simplicity, performance, and elegance,” says Yves. Mini combines beautiful design and experience at the most minimal size. Providing unparalleled and uncompromised listening in a breakthrough highly portable mini package, Mini Jambox blasts rich sounds at high volume. The integrity of the Mini materials and craft enhances our music experience in ways we could only have dreamed off.
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.
San Francisco designer Yves Behar of Fuseproject has designed a lock that replaces physical keys with a smartphone app.
Developed by Yves Behar in collaboration with technology entrepreneur Jason Johnson, the August Smart Lock is a cylindrical metal device that fits over the existing deadbolt and syncs with the user’s smartphone.
It uses Bluetooth to sense when the phone is approaching in your pocket then unlocks the door automatically, while remote allows you to open the door for guests from anywhere.
With an access code, other people can be given assigned entry times and dates – for example a cleaner could have a code that only grants access on a specific morning each week, or guests staying for a week could have a code that expires after they leave.
It’s possible to send invitations to events and grant access to guests through the app, where guests and owners can also leave notes for each other or share pictures and comments.
The user interface of the app features flat coloured circles to indicate whether the door is open or closed and control who has access when. The lock has an anodised aluminium case and incorporates LEDs to indicate whether it’s locked or unlocked.
The battery-powered device uses the same secure secure communications technology as online banking and August is not dependent on the house’s power supply or WiFi.
“Whereas traditional keys are easy to lose and copy, keypad codes can be easily shared, and biometrics are expensive and a challenge to install, the smart lock is a beautifully designed, easy to install, sociable device accompanied by a single mobile app that runs on your smartphone,” explain Behar and Johnson.
The product will be ready to ship later this year and is the first from new brand August, co-founded by Behar and Johnson, which launched on Wednesday at the D: All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Here’s some more information from Behar:
August: you are invited
Have you ever lost your keys? I am willing to bet that 99% of us have. In the last year, 20% of Americans have been locked out of their homes at least once. Humanity has been carrying keys, sharp pieces of metal in our pockets, for 200 years…it’s time we think of something else.
This is the task my co-founder Jason Johnson and I have decided to address: to make home entry magical, safer than keys or keypads, and something that makes our lives a little better. We set out to design the August Smart Lock hardware so that it works with existing deadbolts, it is easy to install and is beautiful on a door. The user interface of the smartphone app is intuitive, and allows for great control about who and when friends, family as well as services will be able to access your homes. The best user interface is often invisible: August auto-‐unlocks your door as you approach, and sound design creates an audio confirmation.
The name and logo is warm, friendly and elegant; these qualities are extended to the app, which uses a flat design of simple color circles as indicators for door status, a keychain of all your keys, and scheduling guests’ access. The lock itself is also a simple circular extruded shape, hand sized and made of durable anodized aluminum. The craft details increase tactility with diagonal knurling and the LED’s micro-‐perforations, as well as a physical scoop on the lock, are visual indicators as to whether the door is locked or unlocked.
Changing the archaic key system is also a way to shift the conversation from keeping people out to ways of making our homes both secure and social places that our family and friends can easily access. With a beautiful and minimally designed smart lock, and an easy, safe, social app experience, August is the first step towards seamless interactions with useful technology we will experience everyday in our home.
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: designers including Marcel Wanders, Yves Behar, Tom Dixon and Konstantin Grcic discuss the importance of Milan design week, which ended in the city yesterday, and whether it can retain its title as the world’s leading event.
Each April, the world’s leading designers descend on the city for the fair still regarded as the most important in the world. “I come to Milan every year,” says Yves Behar. “It’s the obligatory stop.”
“It’s a moment I can’t miss,” agrees Stephen Burks. “It’s the most important week in the design calendar.”
They are joined by hundreds of thousands of international visitors including students, journalists, buyers and younger designers trying to get their work noticed.
“It gives lots of young designers a great thrill to come here and get discovered,” says Ron Arad. “My entire design team comes here to suck up new ideas and ensure they’re seeing the latest and the greatest,” says Anders Warming, head of design at MINI.
The fair owes its importance to the emergence of Milan as the world’s key centre for the design and manufacture of both furniture and products after the devastation of the Second World War, playing a key role in Italy’s economic recovery. “All of the important history of post-war furniture design happened here,” says Konstantin Grcic.
The official fair, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, as well as the Fuori Salone events around the city, grew over the years into the sprawling citywide festival it is today. “There was a lot of excitement around [the fair], starting in the early eighties with Memphis and [Studio] Alchimia,” says Arad, citing two of the most influential Milanese design studios of the last century.
However the economic crisis of recent years and the emergence of rival design centres combined to make this year’s fair a more sober affair than recent years. “I feel like there’s a return to the reason why we are all here, which is the actual commerce of the fair,” says Johanna Agerman Ross, editor-in-chief of Disegno magazine.
“It’s certainly got much, much more competition these days,” says journalist and curator Henrietta Thompson. “The London Design Festival is fantastic these days but also Stockholm and Paris.”
Milan-based designer Fabio Novembre touches on the reasons why the city might be losing its edge: “It’s hard to take a group of Italians and make them all go in one direction,” he says. “That explains why we’re in a big crisis and why we are almost losing the importance of Salone del Mobile.”
Joseph Grima, editor-in-chief of Milanese design magazine Domus, agrees. “The city is really in need of someone who’s going to have a vision for the future,” he says.
“Milan remains the only place where you can still see everybody in one go,” says Tom Dixon. “Whether it can maintain that top spot … is hard to tell. It becomes impossible to navigate the city, you can’t get a taxi, you can’t get a hotel room and you can’t afford space to show your goods.”
News: Gamers will be able to design their own cases for the forthcoming Yves Behar-designed OUYA console and print them out with a MakerBot 3D printer.
The partnership will see OUYA upload 3D print files for the case to Thingiverse, the online design database operated by MakerBot, where they can be downloaded and produced with a desktop 3D printer.
The OUYA’s case includes a lid and a spring-loaded button to house the console’s hardware, allowing users to make modifications to the standard round-edged cube designed by San Francisco designer Yves Behar.
As the first product from technology start-up Boxer8, the OUYA will allow developers to make their own games and tweak the hardware as they wish.
Based on open design principles that encourage users to develop and adapt products themselves, the console will run on Google’s Android operating system and all games will either be free or available as a free trial, while the hardware itself will cost only $99.
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.
Some 1,200 Kickstarter investors were given developer versions of the console at the start of the year, but it’s expected to be available to the public this June.
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