Fri, Feb 19 2010
We’ve gotten a lot of feedback in our Community Forum on the industrial design for the “Wrapster,” the “Earbud Cord Management Thingy” submitted by Matthew Fleming. In the spirit of transparency, we’d like to give you guys some insight on how we came to our final decision on this project.
We got some great design submissions this round, and after much discussion, we narrowed the list down to two — Matthew’s original design and the Quirky “Bracelet Style” design. Neither design was perfect, and neither seemed like a fully marketable product for several reasons: size, design, functionality, etc. It was clear, that regardless of the winner, there was still a ton of work to be done in order to incorporate everyone’s feedback and design a bad-ass product.
In these cases, we try to select the design that is most like how we envision the product ending up. The form of the bracelet design was closest to the form we reckoned would wind up being used, given all the feedback that we’d collected and the competitive landscape. That said, the integration of a clip, vertical/horizontal wrapping, and even the elimination of the bracelet function were at the tops of our minds.
At the end of the day, we want to work with you to create the best product we can, which will appeal to a wide range of consumers. Put simply: we’d like to sell bajillions of stuff.
Given the conversation that’s transpired over in the Community Forum, we’d like to give both design ideas a fair shot… we’re going to a re-vote.
Over the next few days, we’ll fully complete both designs given all of the feedback that came in from the ID, research, and eval phases. We will create formal, 3D visualizations of both designs and reopen the project on Tuesday for a 24-hour revote. Submissions to this project will be closed, but comments, votes, and rating will of course be on.
We are excited to see how this plays out. We’re listening closely!
