“There’s climate chance and there’s our working methods to look at too - what materials are being used, how are our products assembled, are we guiding behaviour to make it eaiser for the users to best work their machines or will all those green benefits we’ve carefully designed in end up being ignored because they’re too complicated to use? There’s also the ultimate disposal of the product to consider as well. “The environmental issue will continue to be high on the list. It has to be. There’s been a bit of a blip with the economic downturn and people with not so much money in their pockets but the concern is building and it’s still there. Companies not good at designing with this in mind are going to be the losers.” One of the key areas which Electrolux and the Design Lab have been looking at over the last two years is the issue of space. The prediction is that there are going to be more and more people living in less and less space on the planet, existing in generally more compact abodes with less area who’ll be looking at products differently indeed. Function will, of course, still be hugely important but overcrowding and a premium on accommodation is going to cause a whole new pressure on the look of products of the future. “What’s going to be more of an issue is the amount of floor space something costs us,” explains Szczepanowski.
“Designers can’t make things that are going to be out of date in two years. These things have to look and feel relevant into the future as well. They’ll have to win us over on function and reliability but emotionally win us over too.” Fortunately, aesthetics is not something that Electrolux has been leaving behind. A good look at any of the Design Lab finalists over the last few years and you’d agree that any one of them could be works art as much as anything else. In fact, take a look at the likes of the Electrolux Ergorapido bagless, cordless vacuum cleaner and you’ve got the whole package from look and feel to function and space saving too. Of course, look and feel is more than skin deep. Owner of an HTC Desire Z for its mailing and messaging ways, Szczepanowski has been quick to notice the difference of usability experience even within the Android smartphone category describing the UI on his 8-year-old son’s bottom end Samsung Galaxy phone as “lousy” compared to Sense. “iOS, of course, is slicker and smoother,” he admits, “but there’s life outside of mobile phones.” Design-wise, though, the issue of usability has come on leaps and bounds according to our man at Electrolux.
“It’s all very untrendy but currently everything is designed for the early adopter. There’s going to be a huge market to design for the silver generation instead. We’ll probably all have strained eyes from looking at screens and have had our hearing blasted out by iPods, but at least we should be in better physical condition. Grey is always going to be in, so how will this population be served by design as we get older?”
