The "Perfect Thing"

1.     What elements of the design process does this article illustrate?

This article ("The Perfect Thing" by Steven Levy) focuses heavily on how much work goes into an extremely successful product. Designers (specifically of the iPod) come together to incorporate a mass of ideas that work toward development and improvement of a product that is in-demand, easy to use, functional, and visually (and otherwise) appealing to consumers. Apple hired/consulted programmers, designers, and software and hardware developers all to contribute to an ultimately successful design of the product called an iPod. They used a trial-and-error system of finding exactly the right functions and necessary elements to make it a successful product, using opinions including the size, weight, ease-of-use, sleek design, physical strength, and then-unparalleled functionality.

2.     What factors would you use to evaluate a “perfect thing”?

I would use exactly the factors listed above to describe the “perfect thing”: a product that people want to buy, which serves a great purpose (whether as a novelty or a necessary object), doesn’t break or die easily, is functional and easy to use, and (preferably) is aesthetically pleasing.

3.     Whether you own an iPod or not, you probably have some opinions of this product. What do you feel are its strengths or weaknesses?

I have been a true fan of iPod products for a long time. I first owned an original Video, now classified as Classic (the kind with a plastic body, not the metal body) and now have a third generation iTouch. I feel this product has a sort of batch of bugs or design flaws that comes with each new model, but all are such successful designs in other realms that the flaws generally get overlooked.

For example, my first iPod was made of a metal back with a soft plastic front. And unfortunately, the plastic was so soft that the screen got scratched just by sitting on a dusty table. However, the quality of the programming and design beneath all the scratched-up surface more than made up for how terrible it looked after just a few weeks. (Plus, this flaw was improved and phased out with the next generation, whose front casing was a much more durable metal sheet.) I adored the click-wheel function of the product and the navigating ease it provided, and every little detail was perfect from the On-the-Go playlist function to the way the music paused for you if the headphones were unplugged. And while I heard and read many negative reviews on the product’s durability and battery life, mine was excellent beyond its warranty: Back when I bought it, it stayed alive seemingly forever and it never broke or even skipped a track when dropped. Nowadays, the front and back pieces don’t always stay together, the battery is plenty weaker, and it was probably dropped a couple too many times since the library is a jumbled mess; but it still generally works properly over five years past the day it was supposed to die permanently.

In contrast, my new(ish) iTouch is practically a miracle of a product. It is amazingly durable, and the glass screen seems practically invincible (the only tiny, barely-visible scratch is from an unfortunately-placed car key). The screen quality and sleek design are just gorgeous. The advertising statement, “There’s an app for that” really is true for almost anything. And perhaps the best improvement over my old Video was the fact that I didn’t have to re-format the OS to download music from both my own Macbook and my family’s HP PC. The only thing I miss is the old On-The-Go; the new program on the iTouch makes it so hard to add songs out of a library of thousands that it is no longer worth it to use that function. Still, one single complaint about the entire product seems insignificant.

Because the obvious attention to detail and consumers’ needs that Apple seems to implement in every product, the iPod is a product that clearly dominates (almost monopolizing, even) the digital music player market. I personally believe there is no question as to why. My current iPod isn’t even the most recent installment in the iPod line, and I couldn’t be happier with the now-outdated product the way it is. It doesn’t seem unlikely to me that this product is as close to the “perfect thing” as this market may ever see, as each new iPod seems only to improve upon something that was even a great product in the first place.