Radio that's all user-interface

Here's a radically simplified user interface for a radio -- as Kottke says:

The Hidden Radio has no obvious controls...unless you count that the radio *is* the controls...it "has either no user interface...or...is all user interface". The volume is controlled by lifting the lid of the radio (which also reveals the speaker). Tuning is done by twisting the lid. Absurdly clever.

Hidden Radio (via Kottke)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

Unless I missed it on the linked site, how do you switch between AM and FM? Don’t people still do that?
Takuan

anyone here ever made a crystal set?
calabanos

It looks like a toilet paper cozy. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
ZippySpincycle

But…how do you know when you’ve gone to 11?
Itsumishi

Uukk. This designer is nothing but a wanker if you’ll excuse my french.

Who would design a radio so ‘simple’ you can’t see what frequency you’ve tuned to. Honestly if you want to keep the aesthetics super clean embed something that is only visible while tuning or something but provide something for gods sake!
Who would design a website with text so thin, light and grey that its nearly impossible for even those with 20-20 vision to read.

Wankers that’s who!
David Newland

Wow, neato. Except not having pricing or ordering information on the website is kinda… not usable. You might say, “cleverly absurd.”
Jamie Sue

It’s very attractive. However, I often find over simplified devices like this confusing and frustrating.

You see between the nobs and the buttons and station numbers, lcd screens, clocks, save setting etc.. that makes up the busy face of a modern radio
and this sleek nothingness there has to be an intermediary product to retrain the consumer in how the device works v/s their perception of how it works.

Often though, when product designers “think outside the box” they neglect the crucial step of retraining the consumer to follow them to the outer edges of the box.
ill lich

And I guess tone is controlled by placing it in a cardboard box or metal tin?
Bluraven

Hey, whoever invented lipstick needs to sue these bastards for stealing their design! (wink)
Mike Estee

This reminds me of a comment Ted Nelson made in a lecture once (paraphrasing:)

“The radio just needs two knobs: louder, and different.”
Enochrewt

Uhh, how do you tell what channel you’re on? Listening to a every station until you find the correct one without a readout is a real pain.
arikol

I would say absurdly different or differently absurd.
I do not really see anything particularly clever with hiding the necessary controls and giving no visual clues for operation.

Design wise it gives no affordance (meaning nothing with the design of the object helps the user use it).

Looks designed by a graduating design school student who has never got feedback from real human customers. Also probably never worked with a user interface/usability expert.
Nur

“Quick! Tune to 106.3MHz, you have hear this!”
“Uhh, give me a second here.”
“Oh, then turn it about 7/8ths around!”

I wonder what size of radio it is, are we talking “stool” or “lamp” or “thimble” ?
FutureNerd

C’mon folks. You’re supposed to write the frequencies on the top half with felt tip pen so they line up with the LED. Or you can just mark your favorite stations. It’s customizable.

Better: the numbers should light up when you grab it, disappear again when you let go. That might be tricky on the thin outer cylinder.

70 mm is pretty small!
hygraed

I hope it’s like the size of a five-gallon drum so you’ll look really dumb using it.
Chevan

That really reminds me of the PowerMate from Griffin – it’s a really well made metal knob peripheral. It’s mainly designed for volume control, but you can assign pretty much any function you can think of to the six different inputs (turn, push, long push, and push and turn), even program specific.

I guess this post is about how much I like metal knobs. I’d buy that radio if I had a bunch of money lying around that I wasn’t using.
PFlint

OK, I haven’t spent any time with the merchandise, but it doesn’t inspire me to do so. Therefore, I grade this product: FAIL.
monstrinho_do_biscoito

great, so i probably need 2 hands and a modicum of concentration to turn up the volume without changing the station and visa versa.