While parts of this video might seem like an impractical way to experience a shopping experience, I guarantee you this is in your near future. As smart phones, tablets, interactive signage, and devices like Microsoft’s Surface and Kinect become more ubiquitous, this kind of experience will be more common. The example below centers around shopping for clothes, and actually eliminates trying things on. I doubt that step will ever go away, but this kind of digital interaction combined with real world experiences is coming.
Tablet
Design Within Reach Gets an iPad App.
I’m a fan of Design Within Reach. I know that the name of the company is deceiving since their product line is not within the reach of many. I know DWR has also had it’s share of controversy in the past, and that many times you can find products they cary elsewhere. I’m a fan because they have championed high quality modern design, and exposed modern design to so many people over the last 15 years.
Today DWR introduced their new iPad app. While the app is primarily a shopping tool for DWR’s inventory of products, it is much more. The app is a rich interactive tool that features designer profiles, timelines, videos, interviews, a room designer and more. In many ways this app reminds me of an interactive book, similar to Phaidon’s Design Classics which was introduced for the iPad a few years ago.
DWR’s app is a nice example of the changing face of interactive content, and how the iPad and other tablets are forever changing the way we absorb and interact with digital content. While this app could be ported to a website, the result wouldn’t be the same. Like so many applications designed specifically for touch screen devices DWR’s app encourages the user to do more. It creates an experience that goes beyond online shopping, educating and inspiring. Even if you are unable to purchase the products that DWR sells, this app is a great resource for those interested modern design. By making the inspire and learn sections equal to the shopping section DWR has created an experience that is open to all and reinforces their brand. I hope we see more of this kind of thing in the future. Companies like IKEA have already jumped on this band wagon, and frankly I’d rather experience something like this over Amazon.com any day.
Desktop Chair by Moku Woodworking Cradles Your Tablet.
When you have a piece of computer hardware where the design is as simple and elegant as the iPad, the last thing you want is an ugly stand to hold it. You want something as simple and elegant as the tablet itself. Something that blends in, or fades away.
Desktop Chair by Moku Woodware does just that. The stand is a simple piece of bent hand made basswood that cradles your device at a slight angle in both portrait and landscape mode. When in use, the only visible portion of the stand is the bottom lip that is about the same height as tablets bezel. The simple shape is wide enough to support up to a virtually all tablets and laptops with a thickness of 1.2 inches. The interior features a non slip base for added protection.
Prisma from Toncelli = Want.
One of the things that has always bugged me about our house are the Ikea cabinets that were used in the kitchen. There is nothing really wrong with them, I just want something with a better fit and finish. We haven’t pulled the trigger on a kitchen upgrade yet for a couple of reasons, one of them being finding the right look for the house and extremely open floor plan.
The current kitchen setup is a large white island with a black Paper Stone counter. It is void of hardware, and the glass cook-top disappears into the surface creating a large black area floating in the center of the room. There is a single wall of cabinets that run floor to ceiling behind it. The kitchen is minimalist, clean and utilitarian.
Today, while browsing through Toncelli’s website I came across the new kitchen designs for 2012 and saw something I really like. Something I would install in my house in a heartbeat. Toncelli’s new PRISMA line. This is a high-tech kitchen with a minimalist aesthetic, great geometric lines, high-grade surfaces and finishes, and remarkably similar to what already exists in my home.
PRISMA is simple, modern, and dynamic, with revolutionary technologies provided by Samsung (the funny thing is, that sure looks like an iPad in these photos not a Samsung tablet) . Prisma was designed in collaboration with user experience design firm Experientia from Turin. This partnership has resulted in a series of surfaces that create a “prismatic” composition that transmits an immediate sense of weightlessness, emphasised by the lights that illuminate the pieces from below. The invisible handles, which include a vertical version for the refrigerator help to minimize the look of Prisma giving it a sculptural quality.
The counter surfaces are an interactive workbench that features a Samsung touch-screen computer, with an internet connection for constant updates to content from a programmed menu.
Modular 4 