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Designing attractive products for users

2012/07/02

　
This is Kodawari; Striving for design perfection; Designing attractive products for users; Ryote Yeno, Design Director at Ricoh's Corporate Design Center
Attention to texture; While working on this product, Ryota Yano focused on the texture of ceramics, especially the glossy surfaces of white ceramics and the rough surfaces of black Japanese tableware. Just as dishes have a bottom edge to prevent slipping. the P3000 also has one to prevent slipping. Yano said, 'I created this product with a tableware design, so it could be placed naturally on a table.' He was persistent with the engineer in pursuing the colors, textures, and details that he considered the best. 'I wanted to design this product so that it is individualized and users are attracted to it', sad Yano. This is just one example of how designers strive to create product designs that adapt to users' senses and emotions.
Creating an attractive and well liked product; Walking enriches Yano's senses. During his commute, he looks for different routes to take. 'It's interesting to see how the grass, trees, and sky changes each day', said Yano with some excitement. The idea of tableware occurred to him from his observation of scenery and daily life. To Yano, design means to 'design flexibly according to the project and its conditions' and to 'make users both irnpressed with the design and attracted to it, so that they will hold the product in high regard'. Yano will continue to observe natural scenery while reflecting on attractive designs.
Developing an easy and simple unified model; The P3000 realizes a new type of communication. Previous videoconferencing systems were certainly convenient since they didn't need any connection preparations and could be used to instantly see and talk with others. However, these systems required a special room that needed to be permanently allocated for their use. Why can't we easily hold a meeting anywhere that we want? This is why we design the P3000 with a built-in microphone, speaker, and camera, and the ability to display video using a projector. Accordingly, we created a prototype of a new communication tool that is both easy to use and easy to carry.
Enjoyable design; The slimness and size of this product were essential to making it portable. 'I wanted this product to be slim so that it could be carried with the projector used for the videoconference. It also needed to be able to fit in an A4 size desk drawer so that users can use it whenever when they want. These are the design features that I strived for'. said Yano. When viewed from the back side, the area where the carnera is stored has a curved surface that naturally implies its function as the camera storage compartment. This configuration is representative of Yano's commitment to product design. 'I wanted to design this product so that it is enjoyable'. he said with a bashful smile. The curving surface also makes it seem slimmer. Yano is delighted if users happen to notice such design details. We look forward to him designing even more natural designs that are enjoyable.
Technology information: Unified Communication System
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