iPhoneCTO

Great 3rd Party Keyboard iPhone Concept & Interview

by Yves Neidlinger on 25/02/09 at 6:06 pm

Yves Neidlinger is a technologist and a social media and marketing consultant. He is the National Channel Manager for Navara and the founder and Editor in Chief of iPhoneCTO.

iPhoneCTO is proud to present the second part of our interview with Mat Brady.  If you missed out on part 1, you can find it here.

5.  Looking through your site, the mockup seems quite different than your other designs.  Was this just an experiment or do you have plans to continue creating more tech conceptual designs?

The iPhone ELITE was a detour from my journey to design the Holy Grail of gadgets, the Omni-Gadget.  It is a pocket-sized device that does everything.  This design obsession began from a time I was in India pouring over a very thick Lonely Planet book.  It occurred to me that if I had a thin e-reader, I could have a digital version of this Lonely Planet and all other Lonely Planets combined!  This led me think about combining that with Google Earth!  And then with Wikipedia!  And before I knew it, I was thinking; if we tried to make a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, what would that look like? How would it operate?  What else could it do?  As I kept thinking about it, I realized that one day this will actually be real, and sooner than we think.

The iPhone goes a ways towards this goal.  iPhone ELITE was a cheeky shot across Apple’s bow to push them into going even further.  If I were to create more tech designs I’d like to put my Omni-Gadget ideas into a 3D model.  Chances are, however, it would look more like a PSP than an iPhone.  The real challenge though isn’t in the design of the gadget, but the design of a UI that could intuitively connect and navigate through all of the Omni-Gadget’s features.

6.  How was the mock up received?  What was the most notable response to your design?

Websites all over the world picked it up and the response was incredible, if a little overwhelming.  I certainly achieved what I set out to do, which was to create a discussion.  I was surprised that the physical keyboard was the feature that generated the most responses.  Some people genuinely prefer physical keys, while others genuinely prefer a touch screen.  My favorite response so far was on a French website.  One person simply commented (in French): “Who is this Mat Brady?”  I joined the website just to reply with: “I am Mat Brady!”

7.  Based on the huge number of visitors we saw from this single post, there seems to be huge interest in gadget concept designs.  Is there a community of people creating conceptual designs?

Definitely.  However, I believe they are part of a broader trend of people that don’t passively wait to see what companies will give them. They interact creatively with these same companies to prompt them to give them what they want.  I feel more a part of that community, mostly because I have ideas in many other areas than just gadget design.

8.  What do you think of Jonathan Ive and his philosophy on industrial design?

I’ve not read any of his books, only what I’ve learned from having used his products.  I believe it’s clear that Jonathan Ive has struck upon some kind of universal principle of design, something very archetypal.  His “rectangle with curved corners” approach to everything actually works.  And it’s so simple.  It’s friendly.  It’s neutral.  It’s elegant.  His design style has really become more defined in the last few years.  He will no doubt be imitated countless times.  So, in short, I’m a fan.

9.  What’s next for you?

I’d love to be an industrial designer, or better still, a UI designer, but I’ve never worked out how, so I’ll continue to create designs and UI in my spare time.  My latest creation is a UI for a file manager program that uses a completely new approach to organizing files.  Once I’ve completed the last of the mock-ups, I’ll present it to anyone who’s interested.  It’s strange how the few publicly shown designs and critiques I’ve put on my blog have generated interest from places I would have never expected.  The latest being a news website called veri.com.  They have asked that I give them some constructive feedback before they go live. I was happy to do so, but I couldn’t let it rest at just words.  Images tell so much more.  I created a mock up of a new UI for them, which was incredible fun.

10.  Finally, did you ever hear back from Steve?

Ha!  No, and I doubt I ever will.  Although, I remain hopeful.

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