Nest, the connected thermostat made by Tony Fadell, former chief architect of Apple is a thing of beauty. My colleague Katie bought a Nest and showed them to me. Stunning is how I would describe it. Earlier this week, a friend of mine shared a photo from his apartment — of a very old school thermostat. Take a look and see how similar they are in form and function. I guess, somethings are just brilliant when made and survive tests of time (and trends.)
Ah – I grew up with old-school Honeywell thermometers. Pure simplicity – if you only wanted one temperature. But the frustration with programmable thermostats was great enough that we got a Nest too. Clearly the best thing we bought last year.
Beautiful and elegant design is extremely difficult and few companies have the chops to pull it off. It is exciting that some are trying and doing just that!
A UX designer friend notes the fundamental problem is most engineers could be directly cast into “Big Bang Theory” roles.