Engineering news
Heralded with plaudits such as “the oracle of stylish product design” and the “man behind silicon valley’s most beautiful gadgets”, Swiss industrial designer Yves Béhar has seen unprecedented success in recent times. His design firm, fuseproject, has won international acclaim for its work with brands such as GE, Puma, PayPal, SodaStream, Samsung, Issey Miyake, and Prada.
Amongst many other projects, he is also chief executive at wearable electronics firm Jawbone, and is co-founder of August, a firm developing a next generation home entry system. PE caught up with him at the recent Solidworks World conference in Dallas, Texas, where he was discussing his approach to design and technology.
Yves Behar, founder of design agency fuseproject
Q: You’re well-known for your passion for new technology. How does it influence your approach to industrial design?
A: Technology brings about change, that’s why it’s easy for Hollywood to scare us with stories about technology. But design is also about change. Technology is about specs and features, and design relates to the human experience. When technology is ubiquitous, design has to be the driver. Design accelerates the adoption of new ideas
Technology is malleable, it can be cut into different shapes and functions. It’s like sewing and going to a fabric store and picking the right materials. Technology is the raw future before design get to it. How we shape it and mould it to our needs is the designer’s job.
Q: Can you tell me about your approach in your design consultancy to design projects?
A: What I have learned is that when designers love an idea they come together with greater amounts of creativity. The key element is to allow for the exchange of ideas everywhere in the office.
It’s not just about making things pretty or making things work, it’s about pushing the limits of technology and making them suit us. It’s about making the experience suit us.
Q: Which do you think will have the bigger impact on engineering and design - virtual reality or augmented reality?
A: I’m not super excited about VR that requires me to use googles. But as I move around the world, I need AR. I think it will become part of almost everything we do.
One of fuseproject's most recent projects, a redesign of the iconic Kodak Super 8 camera
Q: A lot of your design focuses on human machine interaction. Is this most important part of your designs?
A: There is a huge problem with distraction from screens right now. We use them as a tool for not being in the moment. I call it distraction hell.
The challenge for the designer is to think about that control in subtle and non-intrusive ways. We are naturally super-attuned to all types of signals. If I see the wind blowing in a tree and the temperature drops for example, I know a storm is coming. I call this the invisible interface or the natural interface. For example, the Hive thermostat that launched recently in the UK, has a mirrored to fit in with its surroundings.
Q: What do you think the impact of robots will be on society?
A: We need to think about robots and how we interact with them in different ways. I’m involved in a company developing doors that unlock automatically when you walk towards them. That’s done by a robot hidden inside the door. The invisible interface screen is my phone, there is subtle light and a chime, signals to let you know what is happening. We’re also working on a project that involves robots that work with babies, but I can’t say more than that about it.