Design Intelligence Assignment #1

1. The article "The Perfect Thing" displays a few elements of the design process. To begin with, Apple brought together a team of people that would design, evaluate, test and market the product. One of the "fathers" of the Ipod Anthony Fadell created three different forms of the Ipod two of which he designed to fail and the other product he hoped would please Steve Jobs. To say the least, Fadell's plan worked brilliantly. Using Fadell's model as a base for their new Ipod they began to fuse ideas together that they felt would make the perfect product. While all this was going on Apple had another team that would leak information out to the press. After the Ipod was finished, a handful of tech writers would be given the Ipod; Apple's hopes being that they would enjoy the Ipod and write good things about it.

2. There are a couple factor I would use to evaluate the "perfect thing". First, the "perfect thing" must do the job it was created to do. For instance, the first Ipod was created to play music and it performed this task quite well. Secondly, the "perfect thing" should be able to do its job 24/7, not every now and then. The "perfect thing" must be easy to use. No one enjoys a product that is hard to use especially the lazy people of today's society including yours truly. The "perfect thing" also must be a quality product, it can't break down after a few days. I have never had the pleasure of having the "perfect thing". Even my beloved Ipod still manages to frustrate me from time to time.

3. There are many great characteristics that my Ipod has. It is a good looking product, it has been quite reliable, it's easy to use and it does its job very well. However, my I did have to replace the headphone jack system about a week ago. Not having music with me all the time was very infuriating. Also, for some reason I have to keep on replacing my headphones, they always seem to break every couple of months and it has always has been the right headphone that breaks.

Thanks for reading,
Ted Hwang