A Case Of Design Problems

Being a digital media design student means I will be required to use Apple's line of laptop as they are known to possess the necessary horse power to use some of the more RAM-intensive software to ensure smooth running. This also includes Mac-only programmes such as Final Cut Pro.

I really love the Mac OS X, it is fast, it has a nice interface and it allows me to get most of my work done. I also love the inside of the MacBook Pro, where the graphic card allows brilliant display of graphics and bright colors and the built-in speaker that give me sharp and crisp sound. But the problems that I have lies with the outside of the MacBook Pro.

A few days ago when my internet access at home was down, I used my brother's mobile broadband. But when I do, I realize I cannot plug in anymore things as the mobile broadband is simply too fat! Now this pose as a design problem.

First, lets start with the mobile broadband drive. Is it a necessity to make it so fat? If so, does it really have to be designed in this way? If not, what other way can we design it then? The designer for this product would have known this would be used mostly (if not, ONLY) on a laptop and laptop usually have limited USB ports and they are usually close together.

Photo credit: Broadband Finder (link)

Don't mind me, but I am new to using a mobile broadband drive, but a quick search in Google and I have found one solution to this horizontally-challenged problem. Look at the image above. You might have noticed I have a USB Hub but sadly it is not compatible to my mobile broadband drive.

Now we look at the layout of the side where all the ports of the input and output devices goes. Again, it is a necessity to have only 2 USB ports? If so, do we really need to put them so close? Is there a better way to design this? Even my little Dell Latitude notebook have 3 USB ports, with one of them very far from the other 2.

The older model of MacBook Pro is attached with a ExpressCard slot (which I have no idea what that is until now). As I usually have to take photographs often, are Apple proposing that I should buy the ExpressCard hardware? Thank goodness the newer edition of MacBook Pro comes with a SD card slot instead. But too bad for me, I am using the older model.

Another design problem I face was that the parameter of the keyboard area of the MacBook Pro have sharp edges. We were taught to model our objects in our 3D Modelling and Animation class to make the edges of our objects to be rounded as "it is dangerous (in the real world)" as "there are no objects in the real world that is so sharp" as told by our lecturer. Well, we have one that is almost as sharp now.

Although it is not as dangerous as the other one I will be commenting, it literally pains me to use my MacBook Pro. I will always have line marks after typing for too long on my arms. The other problem is that I will often be zapped with small electricity current running through the MacBook Pro. It can't kill you, but again, it is painful but also annoying. Sure, others will tell you to use the extension cable and whatsoever, but why is there this problem in the first place?

Yet another design problem I encounter is the weight of the MacBook Pro, which is roughly around 2.5kg. Apple website consider MacBook Pro "light", and I consider this utter rubbish. It hurts my back every time I have to carry mine to school. Of course, I could use a laptop bag, but then I would have to carry both my schoolbag and a laptop bag to school!

The MacBook Pro design team (Jony Ive) states that "when you have multiple parts (of a laptop), you add size and weight and you increase the opportunity for failure", but I am sure they also realize the problem of building a laptop (the MacBook Pro) with only a single piece of aluminum. What if it cracks? What about safety? Is aluminum the best choice? Does it really have to be build using only a piece of aluminum?

But if you have come to a conclusion that I am probably not part of the MacBook Pro's target audience, I can take that aside, but have Apple thought  about the needs and wants of design students who use MacBook/MacBook Pro? The product design team for the MacBook Pro says that they "care", they probably means that they care only about their products but not their users. Seriously, the MacBook Pro isn't very user-friendly exterior wise, despite what Apple claim.

If I have a choice, I would want to use a MacBook that is safe and light yet powerful enough to let me run programmes that allows me to finish my work. Basically I would want the features of a MacBook Air combined with the processing power of a MacBook Pro. Can Apple do that? Only time will tell.