#product-design

#product-design

Their latest Sound 2 Max speaker dropped last week, and it's perhaps the clearest distillation yet of the company's design philosophy, channeling that peak Jony Ive era when Apple was still making products that looked like they belonged in MoMA. Remember when Ive was literally mirroring Dieter Rams' work for Braun and nobody cared because the results were so damn good?

OpenAI overtook Elon Musk's SpaceX to become the world's most valuable private company this week, after a deal that valued it at $500 billion. One of the ways the ChatGPT maker is seeking to justify the price tag is a push into hardware. The goal is to improve the "smart speakers" of the past decade, such as Amazon's Echo speaker and its Alexa digital assistant, which are generally used for a limited set of functions such as listening to music and setting kitchen timers.

I was once a philosophy professor at the University of Colorado, and I was frustrated with my headset tangling every time I went to make a call on my phone. So I drove to a nearbyJoann Fabrics store and glued a couple of huge clothing buttons to the back of my tiny little iPhone so I could wrap my headset around them. I got made fun of for how ridiculous it was, but over the course of about a year and many, many prototypes, I miniaturized it, and eventually launched a business out of my garage in the mountains of Boulder in 2014.

When it comes to software, we like to pretend that quality is a number. Dashboards stand in for judgment, A/B tests stand in for taste, and leaders try to will excellence into existence with reviews and mandates. But in today's software market, confusing a KPI with quality isn't just naive; it's fatal. Consumers' attention spans are short, but their expectations are higher than ever; if your product fails to solve a real problem in an elegant way, you don't get a second chance.

Rotterdam-based designer Lisanne Meester has expanded her Core furniture series into smaller-scale objects with the introduction of the Core Candle Holder, a compact aluminum piece that maintains the architectural sensibilities established throughout her broader collection. This newest addition employs the same material approach of aluminum construction with stainless steel bolt connections that defines the Core aesthetic. Meester's philosophy of creating statement pieces that transcend pure functionality finds expression in this candle holder through its clean lines and strong silhouette,

STEELPORT Knife Co., the Portland-based maker celebrated for its award-winning, American-forged kitchen cutlery, is doubling down on its mission to merge craftsmanship and innovation with the release of its newest product: the SteelCore™ Mini Cutting Board. Alongside the Mini, the brand has unveiled three curated Knife & Board Sets that make gifting high-quality kitchen tools easier than ever. Together, these launches mark the next step in STEELPORT's commitment to redefining the modern kitchen experience with heirloom-quality design.

Thomas Heatherwick has turned his attention from grand architectural gestures to the intimate space of the bedroom, collaborating with British lighting brand Tala on Wake, a sleep light designed to combat our screen-obsessed bedtime habits. The partnership between Heatherwick Studio and Tala represents a three-year journey into the intersection of design, wellness, and technology. The result is a bedside lamp that functions as both functional lighting and a circadian sleep aid, crafted from hand-glazed ceramic and pressed glass with an undulating form that mimics natural sunrise and sunset patterns.

"I'll binge the entire series with you." "I'll never leave dirty dishes in the sink." "I'll never bail on dinner plans."

"I didn't feel like I could do a traditional Christmas collection," Westman exclusively tells AD. "So we changed the scope."

Each piece is crafted using DFM technology, a form of additive 3D printing that eliminates molds - and therefore waste - entirely. Printed directly from digital files, the mesh structures use less material while remaining strong and lightweight. The filament itself is a durable PLA/biopolymer blend that's 100% bio-based and renewable, reinforcing the studio's commitment to sustainability. Because the collection relies on a single material, each pendant is also fully recyclable at the end of its life.

Have you ever been a part of a product launch that felt more like a daunting experience, rather than an exciting or thrilling one? The product launch where users got more confused and felt helpless? Where they could not even point out what was wrong, because the product team worked so heavily on improving the tech and the UX, that it actually changed the way they were used to working before.

I would have just bought a lantern for my yacht - I wanted to. But there isn't anything on the market. So instead, I spent two years hard at work designing it," Ive told Boat International.

Kitchen fires remain one of the most common household emergencies, yet most of our safety equipment stays hidden in cabinets or tucked away in corners where we forget it exists. What makes the bogl concept particularly compelling is how it challenges this assumption entirely.

The ARLT Paper Cleaner is a 100% paper-based lint roller that replaces conventional plastic tape cleaners with a fully recyclable, zero-waste alternative. Made from molded pulp and bonded with a water-based adhesive, the product offers a gentle yet effective cleaning surface that is safe for fabrics and delicate surfaces. Its sleek, minimalist design reflects a premium aesthetic while emphasizing eco-friendliness, positioning it as a "Green High-End Brand for Life".

I actually started out thinking I wanted to be a graphic designer. I was really into anime as a kid, and when I got my hands on a (very outdated and pirated) copy of Photoshop 6 at around age 11, I was hooked. In high school, I also taught myself how to code, which opened the door to doing small freelance jobs here and there while I was still in school.

Hopefully, I pulled you in with that big number in the title - and it is real. Here are the numbers: Press enter or click to view image in full size But it isn't magic. It's just a really good research, design, and dev process. And I'm going to show you the whole thing from start to finish. 🛠️ Background: Building the Hard Way I've built a few SaaS products (5 to be exact) the old-fashioned way-handcoded. Some were super successful and some were absolute flops.

At the heart of the design is a smooth‑rotating wheel that lets users set the desired work interval with a simple turn of the hand. The wheel operates silently, eliminating the visual and auditory distractions that often accompany digital timers. Once the time is set, the timer counts down mechanically, giving a clear visual cue as the hand moves toward zero. This physical movement is intended to keep the user aware of the passing time in a way that a flashing digital display cannot.

Chainflip is building the next generation of native cross-chain financial infrastructure, starting with seamless asset swapping and now expanding into cross-chain lending. We enable users to swap major crypto assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL across chains - without wrapped tokens- and have already processed almost $4 billion in trades since launch. Chainflip achieves this by running its own blockchain and a network of validators that control vaults across multiple ecosystems, making the user experience smooth, secure, and fast.

See a curated selection of product innovations, from smart home tech to sustainable beverages, submitted by designboom guest readers from around the world. These posts showcase a wide range of projects, from modular furniture and reconfigurable systems to sustainable materials and thoughtful new solutions to everyday problems. Powered by designboom's Global Creative Community designboom's guest reader submissions give architects, designers, and makers a platform to share their projects with a vast international audience. This initiative fosters an open, inclusive dialogue within our global creative community.

Some innovative products are designed to solve a specific pain point for consumers, while others will address a problem they don't even realize they have. Take soggy sandwiches, for example. A focus group wouldn't necessarily highlight the need for a cooler that keeps sandwiches from getting soggy-but once the problem was identified, it helped inform the design of Ninja's line of FrostVault coolers, according to Michelle Crossan-Matos, the chief growth officer of SharkNinja.

It's so hard to get kids to brush their teeth,

Home fitness equipment typically falls into two categories: expensive machines that dominate entire rooms, or cheap gadgets that get shoved into closets after a few weeks of use. Neither option works well for people who want to stay fit without sacrificing their carefully curated living spaces. The challenge becomes even more complex when you factor in busy schedules that make gym visits feel impossible.

Houseplant, the lifestyle brand founded by Seth Rogen, has announced a new collaboration with ripple⁺ Home, introducing an evocative incense collection that marries fragrance artistry with thoughtful design. Known for reimagining everyday smoking rituals with aesthetic sophistication, Houseplant has built a reputation for products that function seamlessly while doubling as statement pieces. The partnership with ripple⁺-a leader in innovative fragrance-represents a natural alignment between two brands that value both sensory experience and visual appeal.

Finding your keys shouldn't feel like a treasure hunt, and thankfully, Chipolo gets it. The Slovenian brand, born from a group of friends tired of losing their belongings, has been creating colorful item finders since 2013. Their latest collaboration with London design studio BLOND has completely transformed their approach to tracker design. After teaming up with BLOND in 2022, Chipolo reimagined its flagship Loop and Card trackers, moving beyond simple tech gadgets into genuine lifestyle accessories.

High-fashion designers partnering with technical outdoor brands used to feel like an odd mismatch, but these collaborations are becoming surprisingly common and genuinely compelling. The latest example comes from an unlikely pairing: The North Face, masters of rugged adventure gear, teaming up with Cecilie Bahnsen, the Danish designer known for romantic, sculptural womenswear that looks like it belongs in a fairy tale.

The midsize business category of Fast Company's Innovation by Design Awards honors products, projects, or services by companies with 100 to 999 employees.

I currently have two SodaStreams in my kitchen. The Terra and the Art. From a fizzing perspective, there's really no difference between the two - they both carbonate my water as energetically as I need them to (five pumps, if you're asking). But I have to say the design is another thing altogether - only one brings one of the most influential interior design trends to your kitchen.

They were both well received and proved popular with buyers, perhaps helped by their quirky yet super-comfy square shape. Still, many reviewers-myself included-noted that they seemed to lack features like advanced codecs, wear sensors, and customizable controls that came standard on similarly priced alternatives from the big brands. The bigger issue, however, was that the Between 3ANC's noise canceling and sound quality fell short.