Design Review Explanation
Intoxication with technology and design obsession are words describing the passion that designers have infused into the latest and greatest technology. Within this site, we try to quantify and justify the decisions for our reviews and explain what makes certain technologies tick, and what doesn’t. In this post, we describe our intentions for how we make our review.
Of course, we believe that the heart of technology and its ability to inspire… capitalism, of sorts, is specific to form first and foremost. Form however, is a specific science that not only deals with the obvious aspect of aesthetics, but takes into account the analysis of build quality, user interface, consumer appeal, trends, and more. We have dubbed the miscellaneous category, X-Factor. This factor, which many of the industry’s most breakthrough products have, manifests itself in different forms for each product. In a sense, it’s the category for everything that’s specific only for the device itself.
Finally, before we delve into the specifics, let us mention that words are, in many cases, not enough to describe certain aspects of a device. As such, we will typically describe these aspects with wrong spellings of words (e.g. hawt for hot, seeexy for sexy, dood for dude), in an attempt to accentuate the adjective.
Five Word Review
It has been said that the modern era of writing imposes too many words and thoughts on the reader. So much so, that it disrupts the reader from the core intentions and instead causes them to focus on the drivel and embossment of the writing. It has been noted to this writer in particular, that this is certainly the case. As such, in an attempt to impose on you the actual thoughts and logic trains surrounding these reviews, the five word review will be a simple phrase that will describe the core takeaways from the review.
Aesthetics and Action
This section focuses on the cosmetic attributes of this phone. Aesthetics describe the exterior look of the phone, while action describes the exterior feel of the phone. In a sense, this section describes the first impression that a phone gets, causes the jaw to drop, and activates the spark plugs in the salivary glands.
Fabrication and Flavour
This section focuses on the build quality of the phone, as well as anything that gives the phone flavour. Build quality is, in many cases, what makes or breaks a phone. It is what differentiates luxury and cheap, what differentiates an Audi A4 S-line Titanium from a Prius, and what differentiates Asus from Acer’s entire lineup. Flavour is an extension of build quality and is the ingredient to what really drives the obsession over technology for the teck geeks out there. In a sense, this section describes the continuation of the user experience, causing the eye-openings and the actual salivation process.
Interface and Interaction
Because software can be just as sexy as hardware, this section focuses on the user interface and the interaction between the hardware and the software. In a sense, it describes the warming up of the vocal chords in the throat and the sweat glands in the fingers as they work overtime to suppress the dramatic experience.
Performance and Pacing
This section closely follows along the functional elements of the device. However, the reason and purpose of this section is not the actual functionality, but the way in which the functionality and performance of the device affects the user experience and interaction with the form of the device. If the device performs slowly, it causes an initial 20% obsession drop (average over zero research), because the modern era of today cannot be kept waiting. In a sense, this section describes the support muscles required to keep the eyes open and the fingers moving, and the flavours to keep the salivary glands salivating.
Tracking the Trends
With a variation in trends every few months, this section follows the latest in technology trends. Without following the latest trends (in the case of market disruptors), the product ends up in an unknown and risky environment. Many times the outlook on this environment seems strong (e.g. Android and open platform mobile OS’s) and in many cases the outlook seems doomed to fail (e.g. Microsoft Sync on Ford’s cars). Trends are important and seeing technology morph trends is just as important. In a sense, this section describes the final action of the obsessive user experience – the screaming from the warmed up vocal chords simultaneous with opened eyes, salivating glands, dropped jaws, and sweaty fingers and palms.
Collative Conclusions
In a couple paragraphs, this section is meant to wrap up and summarize the strengths and the weaknesses of the device into an idea. This idea is meant to describe a feeling that words can only try to describe. Most of the time, the words describe the exact portrayal of the idea – mediocre. But in some rare cases, you get those indescribable feelings of joy – like when Apple’s first multi-touch breakthrough technology got in the hands of the gadget-craving people, or when the Aston Martin DBS debuted in the latest Casino Royale, or the odd familiarity of netbooks picking up an insane amount of steam.
Finally a design obsession score (self-explanatory) is given. Not an average/sum/logical progression of the previous scores, but a final score of why this device is obsessively designed.