
Durable Design (2017) - vog
http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2017/09/13/durable-design/
======
Ecco
Honestly, there’s another explanation that I think makes a lot more sense even
though it’s less beautiful : the product team wasn’t sure they wanted to ship
a battery with the device in the first place. Or at least they wanted to keep
the option of shipping the device without a battery.

Removing the battery makes the device cheaper (you can also remove the power
brick if any) and removes a supplier from the chain. Keeping this options
makes a lot of sense from a purely economical standpoint.

~~~
taneq
It's also a pragmatic move for a mobile device which might need to work for
long periods of time away from power sources. As strange as it may seem to
some of us, not everyone has a USB port available at all times. You could take
one of these things and a couple of packs of AA batteries on a camping trip
without worrying about finding a power point.

Similarly, Windows Mixed Reality VR controllers run off AA batteries instead
of the more traditional built-in LiIon battery. The downside is you have to
buy batteries for it, the upside is you can swap battery packs and you're not
beholden to a custom power source.

~~~
noir_lord
Oculus Rift S controllers run off a single AA each as well.

It's a good choice though led to us going through AA's at a horrible rate in
our house.

~~~
moviuro
> going through AA's at a horrible rate in our house

You can buy rechargeable AA batteries[0,1] though. I only have those at home
(toothbrush, remotes, etc.).

[0] [https://www.energizer.com/batteries/energizer-
rechargeable-b...](https://www.energizer.com/batteries/energizer-rechargeable-
batteries)

[1] [https://www.duracell.fr/product/duracell-rechargeable-
ultra-...](https://www.duracell.fr/product/duracell-rechargeable-ultra-aa/)

~~~
germinalphrase
Eneloops are a high quality AA option. Standard choice for flashlight nerds.

------
mattlondon
I don't quite buy this romantic image of an engineer trying to fight for the
people still using the device in 10 years time - I really doubt this was
designed so that it could be used after the lithium battery completely died.

More likely it was designed so you could use some batteries that you can buy
anywhere in the world when you are out and about traveling/vacationing and the
battery is flat.

I work at a fairly major place you've all heard of with a reputation for
software engineering excellence etc. One of the engineering managers said
something to me the other day: "You know, we engineers here at <Big Co> write
our software with this idea that it needs to be extensible and flexible enough
to handle anything, like it's going to be around forever. In reality a project
only lasts 3 or 4 years, maybe 5 before it is deprecated, replaced, or
shutdown. Imagine how much more we'd get done if we were more pragmatic and
not obsessed with future-proofing something we _know_ will be replaced soon"?
Food for thought.

~~~
exfed
Well, to be fair, that romantic image plays pretty strongly on a desire to see
my work as something of a legacy--something that outlives my own mortality. I
might be unique in that romantic desire, but somehow I doubt it.

Your engineering manager is on to something. I feel like that romantic desire,
ironically, gets in the way of making real progress 99% of the time; even the
code I'm really proud of, given enough time, will probably end up irrelevant,
if only because I'll have learned so much more in all that time. It's easy to
think of the act of writing as the hardest part of "writing code." But,
really, it's all the learning in all the years prior that's most difficult.
So, really, "throwing away" code and starting over isn't actually all that
costly. Throwing away engineers, their experience, or skills is what gets
expensive.

With that said, one of these days I'll start writing my "The Art of Computer
Programming" ...

------
AJRF
"When an escalator breaks down, it becomes a set of stairs"

I heard this a while back from somewhere and it's something i've taken forward
when trying to design complex systems in code.

Where possible fallbacks and fail safes should be part of the design, not
after thoughts.

Nice article.

~~~
oftenwrong
>"When an escalator breaks down, it becomes a set of stairs"

That's one of Mitch Hedberg more famous "one-liner" jokes:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg)

------
kingbirdy
Are there any established companies that design products like this? Every
story I see about consumer friendly design is either the first product from a
company that stopped being consumer friendly down the line, or the only
product from a company that's now dead.

~~~
supergauntlet
I really think planned obsolescence is the future for everyone. Why build
things to last when you can 1. save money by cheaping out and 2. ensure a
future customer by cheaping out?

There's no reason for them to build high quality, long lasting things. So why
would they? They don't care about the waste.

~~~
iamkroot
You can buy stuff that lasts, it just tends to cost a _lot_ more than the mass
market products.

Consumers have voted with their wallets and the markets have responded. If
consumer behavior changes, the markets will to.

~~~
julbaxter
It is more complicated than this. Many do not have enough in their wallet to
'vote' based on their values.

~~~
iamkroot
Which is why the "cheap" products are important. Without them many people
would not have access to a wide variety of goods.

~~~
julbaxter
The fact that "cheap" products are important does not reinforce your first
statement that "if consumer behavior changes, the markets will to". When a
family can afford a swimming pool because there are now ones you can buy for 8
dollars I won't call it a vote. In my opinion, buying can be assimilated to a
vote when your wallet is big enough to let you consider several market
options.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _In my opinion, buying can be assimilated to a vote when your wallet is big
> enough to let you consider several market options._

And also, and I keep repeating this, if there even _are_ options.

The problem with voting with your wallet is the same as the problem of voting
in a typical western democracy. You never get to vote on a feature/issue in
the abstract; you can only choose out of what's available on the
market/ballot, and that's always a very large bundle of features/issues, so
you have to make trade-offs when voting.

For instance, I very much want to have a replaceable battery in my smartphone,
but my current one doesn't have this feature. That's because I had to choose a
whole bundle and the replaceable battery lost with considerations like "won't
turn into unsupported and underpowered garbage in 2 years", "still has audio
jack", "support SIM cards" and "I trust the manufacturer". There's no way for
the market to pick up on my preference for replaceable batteries here.

------
roland35
That is a clever solution to a common problem with battery powered devices.
Another benefit to the engineering side is that designing a custom battery is
hard - you need to work closely with the battery vendor on the mechanical
package and the electrical interface. The final battery may not have been
available when the first prototypes were out! So having a AA option made it
easy to test.

With the battery products I have been part of developing we had a wire lead
from the battery which made the mechanical interface more modular. This was
not a handheld device however, so the trade-offs are different. Blade or
similar contacts are more user-friendly and reliable for many insert cycles.

------
thevagrant
The last 'flagship' mobile phone with removable battery - the LG V20 did ok
and had a diehard fanbase, but still mobile phone manufacturers dropped
replaceable batteries as a feature. It certainly is done to force more sales
and consumption in the market.

In LG's case though, it backfired as their mobile marketshare dropped with
each successor to the V20. I suspect they could have carved a large niche by
evolving the V20 design and fixing the problems that plagued it. LG's
repairable phones were a point of difference. The V30 and beyond were glued
shut and offered very little differentiate themselves.

Canon used to ship various models of pocket camera which offered a similar
feature as shown by the original post (ability to use AA or AAA batteries
depending on model). This to me was a practical feature but the market must
have shown otherwise.

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marapuru
This reminds me of the book "Ends." by Joe Mcleod. It manages to very well
describe what the implications are of not taking the end of your product into
account.

Give it a read if you are interested in topics like planned obsolence or
product design in general.

[http://www.andend.co/book](http://www.andend.co/book)

------
lpasselin
Any other durable design ideas like this?

~~~
julbaxter
[https://kataposte.com/fr/accueil](https://kataposte.com/fr/accueil) or
[http://www.lincrevable.com/en/](http://www.lincrevable.com/en/) or
[https://buymeonce.com/](https://buymeonce.com/)

------
keyle
Durable isn't timeless, that's for sure, for that product looks pretty
average.

What I'm more looking out for are companies that create sustainable products,
with replaceable batteries and/or a return program that involves the recycling
and proper disposal of those batteries/products.

~~~
hydrox24
> Durable isn't timeless ... for that product looks pretty average.

The design can be timeless without the design being beautiful. The design is
more than its appearance.

~~~
keyle
I respectfully disagree. For a design to be timeless, it means that it feels
right through the ages. Feeling right implies "good aesthetics".

~~~
wawhal
I respectfully disagree. I think most people would be okay with "average
aesthetics" as long as the functionality of the product is designed well
(flexible batteries in this case)

What looks good to 5/10 people, might not look good to the other 5/10\. For an
instance, consider an iPhone 4S. It is a pretty average design "aesthetically"
IMO. But the phone did extraordinarily well because it was a well engineered
phone. Another example is this website that you're looking at. I would call
this average aesthetics as well.

Of course good aesthetics is an awesome add-on, but it is not fair to
disqualify a product based on just aesthetics.

~~~
saagarjha
> For an instance, consider an iPhone 4S. It is a pretty average design
> "aesthetically" IMO.

I have heard multiple people _unironically_ call it the sexiest phone they’ve
ever seen.

~~~
wawhal
Exactly, "sexiness" is subjective.

------
gedassan
Gaming console hardware needs to support software from way back. That's one
other example at least.

~~~
pedrogpimenta
Supposedly, the new Playstation will be able to play games from all the
others, which is s good thing.

------
Invictus0
The mobile phone was never a great place for durable design; the market was
evolving extremely quickly. Durable design is for single function devices;
things like axes and musical instruments and toasters and so on. Why would
anyone want this product in 2019?

