iphone cs

It’s already 54 day’s of quarantine in Milan and since the start we have been wondering about how this will reshape the world and the market as we know it. That’s why I felt inspired to revisit the design of an everyday object thinking on whats next for the brands around the world and especially for Apple after some troubled years with various lawsuits for reducing the life of their products and having a tough time keeping up with the technological advances from their most younger competitors. For many years Steve Jobs dreamed about building products that everyone loved and that’s how he pushed the boundaries of design and technology. For him, making products that last long, was a top priority, aside with aiding the user's habits and finding inspiration on our psychological impulses. He truly believed making a product that lasts through the years was the core of a successful product and it was something we as consumers already had in our minds.

Think about car's for example in the '80s and '90s, the first check on the list when buying a car was 'reliability' if a car didn't performed well during its first year it could mean a bankrupt for the company and that's why Steve expended so many time building the best phone and OS on the market because he knew both the hardware and software needed to be reliable a side of well designed. And that’s exactly what his last iPhone was. A phone that has been working for almost a decade in which he introduced Siri and the iCloud pushing the boundaries of the smartphones again, even with his health problems. And we as consumers felted that spirit, and that was the cornerstone for the success of the company, the willingness and stubbornness of one man for going the last mile to deliver the best.

But what happened to all that spirit, if you think about it during the last decade Apple kept developing amazing stuff but also committing unforgivable mistakes Steve wouldn't had tolerated, like the magic mouse that charged from below or the pretty unfinished apple pencil that also charged in a weird way and had a cap or simply the dongle madness they created. All those mistakes show us that Apple has been struggling with the design of their products but actually the worst mistake the company has made isn't and obvious design problem but actually a constant and firm line of decisions that made the smartphone market a garbage machine.

"Standards"

Apple during it's first 11 iPhones changed the standards of the industry forever but it's biggest mistake was doing so while thinking on ways to program the obsolescence of the phones because this made the world ditch good design practices that helped the products live long and prosper. Think for example the batteries, Apple set the standard for the non-replaceable battery and that filled the landfills with garbage just because the battery "stopped working" or "didn't last long anymore", when that should've been an easy fix Apple decided make it impossible so they keep the money flowing. The same happened with the storage, in the past every phone had an SD slot to upgrade the memory storage when needed, but for Apple that couldn't make less sense, and actually, they used it to charge hundreds more for something that obviously didn't cost that much, fortunately for us the other brands haven't cop this feature much. And what about the lightning plug standard hands down this is on the top of the bad decisions. But for sure the worst "standard" they created was that it's ok to have a product that breaks easily if you drop it and now with everyone following them all the companies embraced glass because is good for them but guess what, is not ok!.

This is why I gave myself the task to redesign the iPhone and try to create a possible alternative without neglecting aesthetics but adding some of the Dieter's principles of good design that we have repeated so much and that we must never forget. So let's talk about the problems I wanted to solve,

The Insights

First, the mechanical buttons are on their way out but still for the user not having buttons make the phone difficult to operate, so we need another solution, and also we need to keep the mechanical mute switch it just needs to change its direction to make sense.

Second, the screen notch it's being outdated pretty fast and that will make the phone look old pretty soon. Third, prevent damages to the screen and cameras this is one of the most critical things in which I focus the most.

Fourth, we need to add grip for the hand and ditch the cases it doesn't' make sense buying a 2 thousand dollar phone and then cover it with a 1 dollar piece of garbage.

Fifth, ditch the lightning port and finally bring the USB C port home.

Sixth and final add an SD slot for the love of god.

And this is how I solve it with some touch-sensitive buttons that can be enhanced with the haptic vibrator motor to give feedback, then the under-display camera seems to be the best solution for the notch after that I focused on the screen and lest stop for a bit here, for years Apple has set the standards for everything taking the right decision and often going in the other way of the rest of the manufactures so I think this could be actually a bold move for a company like them, so I imagine a good solution to protect the screen and the cameras it's going "concave" instead of the waterfall screen everyone is seeking because if you think about it by moving backward the screen and the cameras you get a bumper all around that can keep our most fragile parts safe. And now we have a housing made completely out of aluminum like the iPhone 6 with 2 small outlines in butyl rubber for taking the hits and guess what, by solving that problem we also solve the next one because now we have handles on the phone giving us more grip points for the hand. So now if we drop the phone to an even surface it's pretty much impossible to break something. And that's it, but for the last two problems Apple just needs to take a look into the mirror and come clean with the lightning and the storage tricks and ditch them.

I know this is not the ultimate phone design and that looking in the rearview mirror is much easier than foreseeing the possible problems that may arise in the future, that's why I'm always on the side of the creators as a designer and as a person, because to be honest the criticisms should only come from someone who knows what they are talking about and who are there to build and help push in the right direction that's why I'm not trying to say I know better than Apple because I don't, I just wanted to point out that there are a ton of alternatives worth to look into and I think this concept could be a great way for a company that likes to lead and for a world after a worldwide lockdown, more conscious about the environment.and about how we expend the money we earn with the life we have.

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No copyright infringement intended This design was made as a concept exercise and

it is not intended to sell, distribute or generate any type of transaction of any kind.