Build an iPod Pain Killer
I’m reading Tony Fadell’s (Nest Labs, Apple, more) book “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making”. What a great book to read: full of insight, and entertaining too.
The main takeaway for me is that Tony says design must aim to build a painkiller and not a vitamin for user pain points. In other words, what is the reason for this product or service to exist?
Tony was co-creator of the Apple iPod. It’s a great story (with cool prototype pictures). The sales prop for the original iPod release was a “1,000 songs in your pocket”. It was a painkiller for having to lug all those MP3s around on a desktop or laptop in those days, for sure.
And then there are those designs neither a painkiller nor a vitamin, but another malady inflicted on the users.
I still have my old iPod (a click wheel job). Still works. Still worth it. Worth reading. Worth building.
