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Product fitness

muji.net

58 pointskirtan12 comments

They picked kind of weird things. Really, really high hanging fruit. The impact of these optimizations would definitely be small, not completely irrelevant but not enough for any one person to notice (unless they like / dislike the changes). This is an interesting way to take on the problem, instead of tackling a huge goal like waste reduction without any concrete attainable results, you create less possible waste to start with. By shortening a cotton swab, you throw less away. You are constrained in how much you can waste by how much is there.

I want to reduce the amount of plastic thrown away each year. I can try to educate the public about what plastic does, where it goes, how it breaks down (hundreds of years), how it's creating an invisible garbage patch in the pacific, but quite frankly, people don't fucking care. We're too small to see the patterns in the hugely complicated system that is the planet. You know how you solve that? Remove the temptation to throw things away, mitigate the trash that needs to be thrown away, and show people the destruction. Or, you could find a way to use that waste.

I read a book recently called "Cradle to Cradle" (http://amzn.to/Y9iRqm) and it argues against the existing, linear cradle-to-grave lifecycle of consumer items. That instead of taking the "reduce reuse recycle" approach to sustainability, sustainability needs to be achieved from the most basic foundations of design.

It asks the question, what if instead of avoiding waste, we could “eliminate the concept of waste” altogether? What if instead of “working hard to be less bad,” we could create things with completely positive intentions and effects?

Muji is going the right direction with small and achievable design changes to address "high hanging fruit" that actually create substantial impact, though more importantly, they invite the notion that we can live in a sustainable world without reducing our ability to produce and consume to the fullest extent.

MUJI does this often, looking at small, often over looked devices and objects, and re-imagines them in a blue-collar yet poetically beautiful way. Their products often strive to be invisible for the same reason.

The third paragraph on that link really sums it up by opening with "MUJI has always been dedicated to the pursuit of adequacy, of designing products that are truly fit for their purpose." Their view of the term adequate is in stark contrast with a modern representation (say, a minimum viable product). Adequate is good.

In a similar vein (from a different perspective), Milton Glaser's 10 Things I have Learned (http://www.miltonglaser.com/milton/c:essays/#4) says the same "Just enough is more"

The best design starts with the purpose. By thinking "what is the purpose of a cotton swab?" or "what is the purpose of the binding on a notebook?" a lot of unnecessary waste can be reduced. Muji is a great example of a company that really designs with purpose over absolutely everything else, and it's reflected in their style and timelessness of their product design.

This page, too. It's not over-designed, and there's plenty of white space and there's nothing superfluous on there.

> what is the purpose of a cotton swab?

If you answer "cleaning my ear", you're risking serious damage.

That's both a specific warning (DO NOT PUT COTTON SWABS IN YOUR EAR) and a more general question: How do you plan to deal with misuse of your product? "Not dealing with it" is a form of dealing with it; it's not really possible to duck this question. With cotton swabs, the answer seems to be "education and a lot of damaged eardrums".

I just wanted to reiterate this. From personal experience, this is a bad idea. I never perforated a ear drum with a cotton swab, but I did (and continue to have) extensive ear problems and used to clean my ear religiously as a result, in the hopes of keeping it clean and infection-free. Only later did I realise the damage I was doing. Even something that sounds as benign as compacting ear wax through the motion of the swab (you don't get it all out, and what's left behind gets compressed and built up) can have serious consequences.

I am not a doctor, so don't take my word for it. Here's the relevant wiki page with citations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_swab#Medical_risks

As always, this is one of those things that you don't think about when you're healthy and your ears are fine. But if you've ever had issues you have a whole new appreciation for how delicate your ears are. I always cringe when I read about people using cotton swabs for cleaning their ears, let alone other objects! (I once heard about someone using car keys?! and then puncturing their ear drum)

If this is part of your routine, you owe it to yourself to at least google the issue.

How do you clean your ears?

you don't. they clean themselves. little hairs bring out the stuff far enough for you to be able to wash without the need for tools. and you might want to to clean your ears out every few years by a pro.

toilet paper space is easily saved just by not attaching the roll stiffening. obviously you can't hang it then.

johnnie walker originally started making square profile bottles to save space in transport and make them stick firmly to each other so less of them break. some time ago milk (and water) was sold in foil, too bad it all got replaced by plastic crap. I've also read somewhere calculations how much space in transport would be saved if coke bottles were of square profile, but can't find it now.

The square Coke bottle concept was designed by Andrew Kim: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2010/3/15/ecocoke.html It allows for 1-2 additional bottles in the space it takes to transport 4 round bottles.

I like the idea, but I'm not sure how well it would work in reality. Conspicuously absent are examples of products already reduced in size. Airplane seats immediately come to mind.

Love this idea. So obvious yet so fresh. I think it's because we live on autopilot most of the time. We passively accept the things we use as "the way it just is". Or that it's not up to us, or not our responsibility.

Case in point is litter in scenic areas (or anywhere). People just ignore it, even when it's completely in front of them. It's like a negative hallucination. When people do see it, it's not their responsibility and dismiss it. It's so ingrained its almost instant.

The environment, the water is OUR responsibility. Don't leave it for someone else to deal with.

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