Hasta La Ideas

News: a wristband designed by Yves Behar for San Francisco electronics brand Jawbone that monitors how you move, sleep and eat has now launched in Europe, just over a year after its initial launch was plagued by technical problems.

Available from Jawbone’s website and in Apple stores, the flexible UP wristband collects data on the user’s activity round the clock. It then delivers information and tips on how to improve the results through a smartphone app, which has now launched on Android as well as iOS.

Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s head of product management and strategy, told Dezeen how extensive user-testing had helped to improve the design after an initial batch was withdrawn due to problems with water resistance and reliability.

“There were issues where the batteries were not holding charge after about a week for some people,” he said. “We’ve gone back to the drawing board and re-designed it from the ground up.”

Bogard said the product was designed to be something people would forget they are wearing. “Think about something like a watch: most people won’t wear their watch to sleep,” he said. “It’s too bulky and uncomfortable. With UP we’re trying to build something you’ll wear throughout the day and throughout the night. Size is a very important enabler of that, as well as flexibility and comfort. Basically it needs to disappear.”

Motion-sensing technology works out how active the wearer has been and vibrates to remind them to get up and move about after a period of inactivity. At night the wristband tracks how long and how deeply they’ve slept.

Wearers can also take photos of their food or scan barcodes to enter information about their nutritional intake, and tell the app how they’re feeling in order to work out how their sleep, movements and eating affect their mood.

The key feature of Jawbone’s wristband is that it learns about the wearer over time, Bogard said. “It will help you understand yourself better. It helps you understand what was going on with your sleep, your food, how you compare to other people.”

The development of the wristband reflects Jawbone creative director Yves Behar’s belief that creating hardware and software at the same time is design’s “new frontier”, as he told an audience at London Design Festival last year.

UP is one of a number of wearable devices to come onto the market over the past couple of years, alongside Nike’s activity-tracking Fuelband and the forthcoming Google Glass headset.

John Hanke, head of Google Maps, predicted the future of wearable computing in a recent interview with Dezeen, saying: “People are working on skin sensors and other ways of transmitting information to us in a way that’s passive and that doesn’t require us to divert our attention.”

We previously reported on the Jambox wireless speaker by Jawbone – watch an interview about it that we filmed with company founder Yves Behar in Milan, or see all design by Jawbone.

Here’s more information from Jawbone:

Jawbone® today announced European availability and a new AndroidTM application for UPTM, its revolutionary wristband and app system that helps you learn things about yourself and your lifestyle that you never knew. UP fits effortlessly into the way you live to help you understand how you sleep, move, eat and feel, and how those activities affect one another. It delivers useful and engaging information through a smartphone application that generates personalised insights to help you make meaning of the data and achieve your goals.

“We are excited to expand the UP community by introducing support for Android, 11 new languages for iOS, and product availability in more than 25 additional countries around the world,” said Travis Bogard, Jawbone vice president of product management and strategy. “Everyone wants to improve upon themselves; we’ve found this to be a fundamental human desire, no matter where a person is starting from or what they want to achieve. Today marks a big step toward our commitment to help people establish a basis for behavior change by bringing UP to everyone who wants to live better lives.”

UP Gives You a Rich Picture of Yourself

UP utilises sensors in the wristband, the powerful phone in your pocket, and data in the cloud to deliver a narrative of your daily life:

– Sleep: UP employs a revolutionary sleep tracking system. Sophisticated motion-sensing technology tracks micro-movements of your wrist to deliver unprecedented detail including how long it took you to fall asleep, how much light vs. deep sleep you got, how long you were in bed and how many times you woke up during the night. By using the new Power Nap feature or setting the silent Smart Alarm, UP wakes you at the most optimal point in your sleep cycle so you wake up feeling refreshed and alert.

– Move: UP gives you comprehensive information about how you move throughout the day, including active vs. idle time, intensity of movement, total steps, distance, and calories burned. UP also vibrates gently to remind you to get up and move when you’ve been inactive for a specified amount of time.

– Eat: UP helps you understand more about your food choices. Simply take a photo of your food to create a visual journal, or go deeper by scanning a barcode or searching the database for more complete nutritional information.

– Mood: UP lets you keep track of how you feel throughout the day so you can correlate how your sleep, movement and eating affect your mood.

– Insights: UP analyzes your data to deliver highly personalised insights. It reveals connections between different elements of your life, shows how you compare to others, and educates with new information that’s tailored for you. The more you use UP, the more powerful the insights will become.

UP is Designed for the Way You Live

UP is a sophisticated computer wrapped comfortably around your wrist and built to withstand everyday life. Encased in a smooth, hypoallergenic, medical-grade rubber, UP is shower- and splash-resistant so that you can wear it all day and night. With up to ten days of battery life you rarely have to take it off to charge.

“The UP band is powered by the patented MotionX® engine which encapsulates years of technology development and innovation on the biomechanics of natural human motion. The accuracy and power efficiency of MotionX has been critical in enabling UP to deliver a 24/7 product experience,” said Philippe Kahn, CEO and founder of Fullpower, developer of the MotionX technology.

Available Beginning March 20

The UP band comes in three sizes (Small, Medium, and Large) and eight colours (Onyx, Mint Green, Light Grey, Blue, Navy Blue, Red, Orange, Hunter Green), and will be available at Jawbone.com and Apple Stores in Europe beginning today. Apple Stores in Asia and Australia will begin carrying UP next month, along with other retail locations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and The Middle East. Visit Jawbone.com/retail-partners for the most up-to-date availability.

The UP by Jawbone App for Android is available today as a free download on Google PlayTM. Jawbone’s iOS app, UP by Jawbone 2.4, is available today in 11 languages as a free download from the App Store. The UP wristband is required for the app.

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relaunches in Europe appeared first on Dezeen.

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.

In Milan last spring, Nivea collaborated with British designer Faye Toogood to create an installation populated by mysterious helpers dressed in white.

Last year we also reported that Béhar’s SodaStream TV commercial was banned in the UK for allegedly “denigrating” rival products – see all projects by Yves Béhar.

See all our stories about graphic design »
See all our stories about packaging design »

Here’s the full press release from Nivea:

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.

The post Nivea packaging by
Yves Béhar and fuseproject appeared first on Dezeen.

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.

Apple was this week named best design studio of the past 50 years at a one-off D&AD award ceremony.

Behar is one of the most feted and successful figures in Twenty-First Century design, with a portfolio of products to his name that includes the XO affordable computer for One Laptop Per Child and the Jambox portable wireless speaker for Jawbone.

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.

See all our stories about Yves Behar »
See this week’s full Dezeen Live lineup »
See all our stories about the London Design Festival »

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time is design’s “new frontier,” says Yves Behar appeared first on Dezeen.

Herman Miller just launched a new video series called Why Design. Each week profiles a designer. This week’s profile features Yves Behar. What makes him tick, how he works and answers that question – why design? Hit the jump for the video.

Herman Miller Why Design

 

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Yanko Design Store – We are about more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the YD Store!
(Herman Miller Launches Why Design Series, Profiles Yves Behar was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Kada – Multifunctional Table/Seat by Yves Behar
2. Nooka Launches Innovator Series
3. Herman Miller Setu Review

Electronics brand Jawbone have launched a larger and louder version of their wireless Jambox speaker, designed by creative director Yves Behar to fill a large space with sound.

The Big Jambox has similar styling to the portable original, with textured metal mesh wrapping the front, top, back and base. This version also boasts rubber feet to reduce vibration.

It will pair wirelessly with up to eight bluetooth devices, controlled remotely via those devices or using bottons on the case, and includes a microphone for making calls via Skype or FaceTime.

The Big Jambox is not so portable as the original, measuring 25.6 x 8 x 9.3cm and weighs 1.23kg, compared to the original version at 15.3 x 4.1 x 5.8cm.

It comes in three colours and textures: Graphite Hex, White Wave and Red Dot and will be released in the US this month before rolling out internationally over the coming months.

Watch Behar talking about Jambox in our interview from Milan last year on Dezeen Screen.

See Behar’s sketches of the original Jambox on Dezeen here and see all our stories about fuseproject here.

Here’s some more information from Jawbone:

BIG JAMBOXTM by JAWBONE®: DESIGN FOR YOUR LIFE

Yves Behar, Chief Creative Officer, Jawbone

The original JAMBOX SmartSpeaker is both a critical and commercial success that has ushered in the era of the wireless speaker. The new entrant in the JAMBOX line, the BIG JAMBOX, takes all of the design attributes that made the original a success, and pushes the boundaries of materials, manufacturing and form to the next level.

Over the last 10 years, Jawbone has approached design with the goal of seamlessly integrating technology and everyday life. At Jawbone, we believe that innovative product design is what unites our achievements in science, technology, engineering and craft, bringing each element together to form a single quality product in a beautiful package. As the embodiment of Jawbone’s overarching design philosophy – “Sound Designed for Your Life” – BIG JAMBOX was built on the foundation that empathy for our users’ lifestyles inspires better design.

This design ecosystem is expressed through:

a) Clear geometric forms and a refined simplicity
b) Relief textures that are functional, tactile and visually stunning
c) Unique, proprietary materials and manufacturing processes

BIG JAMBOX is the purest expression of the Jawbone design ethos. The pure proportions and geometry are the first elements one notices.

The refined volume makes BIG JAMBOX portable, while delivering incredible sound performance. To maximize performance and minimize obstructions, perforated metal wraps the front, top, back, and underside of BIG JAMBOX. A series of patented relief textures are applied to the metal minimizing vibration and maximizing the structural integrity and robustness. The wave, hex and dot textures also minimize material thickness, and provide a visual playfulness as the light catches and defines the subtle relief. The seamless edge-­‐to-­‐edge transitions of the perforated steel require considerable manufacturing innovations, resulting in a proprietary process that pushes the boundaries of art and engineering.


The thin elastomer edges frame the openness of the metal, and integrate an on/off button with a ring LED, a pairing button and connectors within its surface. The same material is used for easy to identify controls that are sized and spaced for quick and easy use. On the underside eight rubber feet isolate BIG JAMBOX from vibrations and ensure it stays firmly in place, even when pumping out deep bass.

While most of the industry is trying hard to up one another with decorative forms, BIG JAMBOX aims to deliver the best sound with the most honest design and experience. These principles extend to all areas of the design for BIG JAMBOX, from the packaging to the product experience. Simplicity and performance are what we strive for and what we aim to integrate into our users’ everyday lives.


Related Dezeen movies:

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Yves Behar on Jambox – Watch this movie on Dezeen Screen »

Gabriel Lamb of fuseproject on Jambox – Watch this movie on Dezeen Screen »

More about the original Jambox on Dezeen:

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Jambox by Jawbone »

Jambox sketches by Yves Béhar »