GLOBAL – When we set out on the road for Design by Community, we genuinely weren’t sure what the reaction would be. One thing’s for sure, we didn’t expect to get over 3,000 votes in the first 24 hours. It seems like we’ve struck something of a chord, which is good news. By the time you read this, we’ll have no doubt received more than 100 comments on Design by Community and from what we’ve read so far, you folks have a very clear idea of what you want from a device.To pick off some of the initial criticism of DbC, specifically around the choices available for voting. We worked hard to come up with a set of metrics that would work for everyone. It isn’t just your input, but how we can capture and use that information most usefully, and whether or not it makes sense to the designers. Sure, it’s not going to be perfect for everyone, but with 3,000 votes in so far, it looks like it’s working. We don’t want to create something that’ll end up being ‘design by numbers’ or a complete free for all. We had to create something that would channel the primary wants and needs of users, but still give the design team scope to interpret that information in the most useful way possible.
There are some topics we’ve not put on the schedule for voting. Chiefly around specific technologies such as processor and RAM. When we came up with Design by Community, we wanted to steer away from very technical specs and put the focus more on the outcome. Sure, we can do a slider on the tech specs (and we may well do, given how many opinions you folks have about it) but for the vast majority that detail simply doesn’t matter. Theory being that the device should be capable enough in all respects to cope with what the user needs it to do. On top of that, what we’re doing here is creating a concept device, defined by you. If we put specs in right now, then it instantly dates the concept and what you might think is an appropriate specification now, could be completely usurped in six, 12 or 24 month’s time.
So where are we now? Well, we’re half way through the first week and it’s looking like a close run thing between screen sizes. 4.5-inch is currently the most popular choice but it’s closely followed by 4-inch. The display itself is universally 16:9 capacitive and the option of a QWERTY keyboard is also very popular. Of course, all that could change over the next few days.
Keep the comments coming, and don’t forget to prep for next week’s widget which will be focussing on size and shape. Let us know what you think should be included in the comments below.