January 6th. Maybe it’s somebody’s birthday, or someone’s wedding anniversary, but to most people, it’s just an ordinary day. This past January 6th, 2 days ago, to me has a very special meaning. I clearly remember ten years ago, when we embraced the dream of letting Chinese people enter the Internet age, and brought the Tianxi computer to Las Vegas. ten years later, at the same CES show in Las Vegas, we released Lenovo’s newest Mobile Internet Strategy and three brand new terminal products: Lenovo Smartphone, Skylight and IdeaPad U1. It was like déjà vu, familiar, but unfamiliar, almost like a reincarnation, but an all new beginning. Speaking of these three new products, in my opinion they all represent significant milestones—just as people often say, nothing worth doing comes easy. Not only do they conform to Lenovo’s recent innovations, they also reflect the needs of our customers around the world. In addition to conveying Lenovo’s corporate strategy in the mobile era, these products are the result of R&D and marketing personnel who have produced the best user experience with their efforts. In these 4 years of development, as a designer, R&D participant, and innovation team manager, I have experienced a lot. I have also received a great deal of satisfaction. The satisfaction is tremendous, and it really makes...
Continue reading “Dreams and Accomplishments, Ten Years in the Making”
ThinkPad Edge 13" Lenovo is starting the decade out right with the announcement of two new ThinkPads. I made a couple of short videos that talk about the design thinking that went into each of them. I plan to write a few blogs during the next week or so with more details about keyboards, the color red, and something we call sophisticated simplicity. Enjoy. Interesting article by Sal Cangeloso at Geek.com regarding the introduction of ThinkPad Edge as a compliment to the ongoing classic line. David Hill
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Can an inch really make a difference? Two of my favorite leadership ThinkPad offerings have been the X300 and the T400s. We used our best technology, engineering, and design talent, to create some of most amazing ThinkPad's ever made. Even though one is called an X and the other T, they are in some ways quite similar. They both have an onboard optical drive, for example. Of course there are also many key differences between them such as processor speed, docking capability, hard file capacity, battery life, thickness, weight, and of course keyboard design. The T400s was the first to sport the big escape and delete keys. One significant difference that is often discussed and debated is screen size. The X300 models use a 13.3" screen and the T400s uses a 14.1". It's amazing how a difference of about an 1" can get people talking. The 13.3 is 11.4% smaller in overall viewing area I thought it would be interesting to poll my Design Matters readers to understand your preference for screen size. Lets assume we are talking about a hypothetical 2 spindle machine where everything is equalized except for screen size. There is a very slight difference in DPI and of course the 14" version would be a bit heavier. The increased glass size adds about a half pound of system weight. Thanks for your continued interest in helping us shape future ThinkPad offerings. I'm looking...
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Zero Fireplace is anything but a zero Lately I've been twittering what I have chosen to call "The Design of the Day". Yes, my interest in design is far deeper than just computers. Design is a career, a hobby, and a way of life. My intent is to tweet a new design on a daily basis. Don't expect to see a lot of computer tweets, that's what the primary focus of this blog is. I still plan on occassionaly blogging about non-computer related design classics here, but those will be much more detailed that Twitter will allow. One of the first designs I tweeted about is a wonderful outdoor fire place that celebrates both fire and fuel. This would look so good in my backyard. You can search for these tweets using #designoftheday or just follow me on Twitter. Hope you enjoy them. http://twitter.com/dwhilldesignDavid Hill
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I recently saw a presentation by designer, brand strategist, and author Marc Gobe of Emotional Branding notoriety where he claimed the true test of a powerful brand is whether or not it has a brand promise that is "twitterable". It 's an interesting point of view that certainly caught my interest. Twitter, the free social networking and micro-blog service, continues to grow in popularity. Their website now ranks within the top 50 most popular in the world. Twitter limits your thoughts, or tweets as they are called, to a total of 140 characters including spaces. The self imposed 140 character limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging. Now it has brought to the web the kind of shorthand notation and slang historically associated with text messaging. Using so few characters to capture a brand promise can be easy for some, and much more challenging for others. Here are a couple of brand promise statements I like that fit within the 140 character Twitter constraint. Expect more.Pay less. You've tasted the most popular German beer in America. Now taste the German beer that's the most popular in Germany. The Target example at 22 characters is incredible in terms of how succinct and powerful it is. Their entire...
