Microsoft / IDSA Next-Gen PC Design contest candidates

We're suckers for good design -- even the occasional eye-catching concept -- and Microsoft's annual Next-Gen PC Design contest never fails to disappoint with interesting if not innovative takes on future devices. .NET Passport users are free to hit up the competition site and vote for their picks in the contest, but everyone can check out the eye candy, like the slice "auxiliary bowl unit" above. (We've also done some of the legwork for you and thrown together a gallery of the best images from each contestant.)

Gallery: Microsoft / ISDA Next-Gen PC Design contest candidates

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[k_no @ Feb 23rd 2007 3:44PM]

I think there might be a typo there somewhere "never fails to DISAPPOINT"?

[Mister_Pibbles @ Feb 23rd 2007 3:50PM]

I still like last year's bookcase design.

SLICE looks pretty neat if you check out the concept - each of those "slices" is set to hold different types of files. Unfortunately, they suggest this as a replacement of folder hierarchies. Unless the concept was changed so you could break each "slice" into "sub-slices" so you can store information in easier to find, bite-sized folders, it could be annoying. Especially when trying to find that one song out of your 20 music slices. Not to mention the prospect of these things finding their ways into the hands of baseball playing children. "Noooo, my entire collection of 1980s cinema! Ruined!"

[crackpipe @ Feb 23rd 2007 4:19PM]

I'm a designer but so much of this stuff is over-designed. The slices look cool but yeah functional efficiency should come first. But then again how do you illustrate head chip implants with visual cortex overlays?

[kevina @ Feb 23rd 2007 4:26PM]

my buddy's design made it into the "semi finals"

Check out "Bulb PC" under Living/Lifestyle
http://www.startsomethingpc.com/ViewEntry.aspx?EntryID=725&EntrantID=491

Be sure to read his [Entry Response] document, it'll make Crackpipe eat his own words.

[Kevin @ Feb 23rd 2007 4:33PM]

These Microsoft (or Intel, if I recall correctly) sponsored design things never fail to prove just how miserable the current state of industrial design really is. Seriously -- did *any* of these designers even think about functionality? Design simply for design's sake is worthless.

[farmok @ Feb 23rd 2007 4:50PM]

I would have to agree that alot of those designs don't take functionality into consideration. With alot of devices already being to complex for the average user, I would think that alot of these designs would scare away many of the consumers out there.

One interesting thing about all those designs, not one of them addressed gaming, which is starting to be mainstream, if its not already, especially with casual games. I would have loved to have seen something in that area.

Oh, and those orange slices looks like a great design for a kitchen, but I think the designer could have done alot more with it to sell the whole package.

[Alex @ Feb 23rd 2007 5:15PM]

That PC for developing countries is pretty solid and practical in my opinion...

[Joel Cory @ Feb 23rd 2007 5:19PM]

It's IDSA -- The Industrial Designers Society of America...not ISDA.

[Fudd @ Feb 23rd 2007 5:53PM]

It never ceases to amaze me how totally off the mark industrial designers are when it comes to technology. There should be one and only one overriding design goal for personal computer technology and that is to make it dissappear.

What I mean by that is to make it so easy to use and integrated into our lives that we rarely even notice it is there. Think about how you use electricity, the only time you think about it is when you are plugging something in, paying your bill, or something goes wrong and it is no longer there. Personal computing should be much the same.

[genexk @ Feb 23rd 2007 5:56PM]

They all suck.

[Muld @ Feb 23rd 2007 6:00PM]

Is the contest "how to make a PC even more complex?" Most of these are quite horrible.

[Stevie @ Feb 23rd 2007 6:31PM]

a round tablet PC?, de-evolution here we come, how can these even be considered, their were 3 which were okay I guess, the one for developing country's was the least bad, I'm not tiring to be overly negative but these were really bad

just looks like a bunch of 3D modeling artists had two days to be wannabe designers

-Stevie

[Zut @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:06PM]

UGH! Most of these are total crap, and the bulbPC has already been done.

WTF is that slice thing meant to be? Does the designer expect us to keep swapping slices around to access different files? Why dont we all replace our nice simply hard drives with a huge stack of flash drives and see how this moronic idea pans out!

It seem to me that practicality or even ANY technical knowledge is frowned upon in this bizarre contest!

[kevina @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:26PM]

See? Alex read the Bulb PC entry, why can't you people?

[mike @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:34PM]

One interesting thing about all those designs, not one of them addressed gaming

--


God, get a life.

[Wolfticket @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:56PM]

They are all really bad.

[keith waddington @ Feb 23rd 2007 11:10PM]

lol Apple must be shaking in their boots!


keep shaking
waddo

[Maverick18x @ Feb 24th 2007 3:49PM]

These are all horrible. Honestly. They're all complex, impractical, and aren't technologically foreseeable. Good design is clean, well thought out, functional, and gets out of the way. It's there exactly where you expect when you need it and gone when you don't. You'd do better looking to Apple's website for examples of good design then this image gallery. And that's remarkable because Apple's products have the limitations inherent in actually existing.

[eh? @ Feb 25th 2007 9:08AM]

Kevina, since you have asked twice for people to check out your friend's entry, by extension you must also be asking for feedback on said entry. I checked it out and even read the entire paper which was included with the pictures.

I applaud your friend's desire to improve the world with a small computer which can do all the things talked about and is able to operate in every condition imaginable. Nothing in computers is ever incredibly simplistic and that your friend would try to take on the challenge of proposing a new idea for a universal computer is admirable.

Unfortunately, this particular concept is more than a little ahead of it's time such that for the near future (say, the next 20 years or so) this device as it stands and reality are pretty much mutually exclusive.

The included document, I will say, is a very nice and interesting read...but unfortunately is filled with contradictions, which shows the design as a whole was not completely thought-out. For example, the device is passively cooled with vents in the back of the unit and then as an example of functionality the device is mounted inside objects such as a solid concrete wall, which would block the vents. The design as a whole calls for a device that is small, flexible, powerful, robust, and is easy to make. Unfortunately, as in project management: Fast, Cheap, Good, choose any two.

The design is not completely without merit though, it just requires another more careful, thorough review and revision to help it, um, shine. As it is, the design is a bit over-reaching with its requirements. With a little tweaking and compromise though, it could be brought closer to the realm of feasibility.

[carl.franklin @ Feb 26th 2007 3:54AM]

That's a Terry's Chocolate Orange!

[ff @ Feb 26th 2007 8:21AM]

There are totally 34 works in the final list,but you put only 15 works here,before MICROSOFT annouce the winner,it is unfair to the other 19 Participants ！

[ff @ Feb 26th 2007 6:32PM]

Ugly, compare with last year's BOOKSHELF,No matter there are 3 or 13 books,bookshelf is aways look like a bookshelf,but,if there are only 3 slices or 13 slices,the ugly Orange will not look Integrityly..

[mark wright @ Mar 2nd 2007 5:12PM]

That is sweet looking.

[purdue_student @ May 16th 2007 5:21PM]

last years winner was oho from purdue!