At the dawn of a new year, it’s natural to want to embrace mankind’s myriad of technological enhancements. So why do I find myself back at my desk (yep, too cold for gardening) wondering why so many of the everyday things we rely on are just rubbish?
At this very moment, a futuristic yacht-type-thingy is bidding for the world record time for circumnavigating planet, powered entirely by biodiesel. Pretty cool huh? Pretty impressive? So why is there such a massive gulf between what designers can achieve on a global scale, and what they routinely achieve in everyday life? Take our humble shredder, made by that smug Greek bloke off Dragon’s Den. Well not him personally, but it’s from Staples, right? It’s pony. It’s supposed to be able to tackle ten sheets at a time, up to fifty times a day. It can’t cope with one and is now, after just a few weeks, knackered and constantly on the verge of giving up. Every time I use it, I check to see where the coal should go and say few prayers. I now have to fold sheets of A4 in half vertically and feed them, one by one, down the right-hand side of the shredder. Even then, the paper gets wrapped round the rollers that are supposed to slice it up. We’ve nicknamed it ‘landfill’ as this will inevitably be its fate.
This isn’t a revolutionary new invention. In my first job, we had a huge wheelie-bin-sized shredder with fearsome jaws that made you wonder where your tie was dangling. It killed everything that passed its lips. So how, after numerous advances in technology, have product designers lost the ability to create something that shreds paper?
Sticking with office equipment, it seems that with every refinement to the humble photocopier (faxing, scanning, toast making etc.), they become less able to cope with anything. Least of all photocopying. Our HP L7780 is Hewlett Packard’s answer to all small-to-medium business’ office media needs; a colour copier with built-in scanner (colour or black and white), that lets you scan directly to your hard drive, plus a fax machine, and all occupying the same space on your desk as an in tray. A fantastic, time-saving product. Or not, because you have to hold its hand while scanning more than one page at a time, in case it gets scared. It also needs reminding several times that you want to turn a one-sided original into a two-sided copy. No wonder the rainforests are disappearing.
Mobile phones are heading the same way. Years on from the car battery on a shoulder strap, we have tiny, shiny, voice-activated, MP3, 10-mega pixel camera, internet phones. Great. But why does crappy reception still stop us having a decent conversation on one of the damn things? Tell you what. Here’s an idea, Mr Mobile Phone Designer. Try giving them bells and whistles after you've got them working properly – as phones.
Then there are ‘Bags for Life’, a term that’s only true if you have a few months left to live. They’re plastic, a bit bigger, and apparently heavy duty (you really don’t want to get me started on that). Did I miss an ice age or something? We’re going backwards. I can’t wait to see what the innovators come up with next.
Clients often ask us why agencies send them printer proofs to sign, even though they’ve approved the PDFs. Sometimes, it feels like another laborious part of the process. But it’s an essential one.