The Next Generation of Smart Product Design
iFixit recently partnered with Core77 and Autodesk to sponsor the second Design for (Your) Product Lifetime contest. And the winners are in!
The design content challenged student participants to throw their mental muscle behind a topic that is near and dear to our heart. iFixit’s mission is to help build a society that has a sustainable relationship with the things we make. Repairing products is part of that equation, but repair is only possible if the products we buy are conscientiously designed.
So iFixit, Core77, and Autodesk reached out to the next generation of hardware designers and asked them what a brighter future of product design might hold. Their challenge: Design a smart product that is durable, repairable, and sustainable. Read the rest of this article »
Design a Smarter Smart Product, Win Up to $2500 in Prizes
UPDATE (7/26): The deadline has been extended to November 15th, 2012.
Smart appliances were all the rage at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. A smart refrigerator might let you check if you’re out of eggs from the grocery store aisle. You could turn on your smart Roomba from the office and return to a vacuumed house.
But when we add short-lived electronics to long-lived appliances, the complete product’s lifespan is usually reduced to the lowest common denominator. A refrigerator could easily last 20 years—but a touchscreen embedded in the door probably won’t.
So here’s a challenge for the students among you: Can you design a smarter “smart” product? Can you make a product that is connected and wired, but also environmentally smart—repairable and designed to last, even if some of its components need to be replaced?
After our recent article about Apple’s unfixable design direction, many people told us it isn’t possible to design compelling products that are also repairable. Well, here’s your chance to prove them wrong. One idea: set up a free Dozuki site and write an iFixit-style repair manual for your product.
We are partering with design magazine Core77 and design software company Autodesk to present the second-ever Design for (Your) Product Lifetime contest. Details below. Submit here.
Read the rest of this article »
Figure Out How to Track E-Waste, Win $10,000
…Just not from us. Can you figure out how to track electronic waste as it moves downstream, from electronics recyclers to its final location in waste sites, scrap markets, or remanufacturing plants? Popular Science and InnoCentive‘s latest Innovation Challenge offers a reward of up to $10,000 for the best scalable system to track electronic waste.
Guess that Mystery Machine
Do you know what this is? Tell me in the comments. I’ll update Monday morning with the correct answer—the first person to guess correctly gets a $20 iFixit gift certificate! Just make sure to include your email address so I know where to send it.