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Following decoded by Reader Okok of GoNintendo

 

“The Design That Nobody Hates”

 

Mr.Takamoto is in charge of the structure of Wii console and Wiimote. Wii’s smallness — “the size of three DVD cases” — is one of the great feature of Wii console. Actually, Mr.Iwata was stacking three DVD cases, and said “I want Wii to be small like this”. Mr.Takamoto got bewildered rather than amazed. At first, he couldn’t understand why he have to make Wii such a small machine, but he was getting it gradually. Wii should be “unobtrusive presence” in living room. There are a lot of audio-video equipments around the TV, and Wii have to set near the TV because of the pointing device of Wiimote. Spaces between TV and AV equipments are very limited, so he understood that Wii have to be small. “The size of 2 DVD cases” was impossible, but they achieved “the size of 3 DVD cases”.

 

Mr.Takamoto told that The hardest thing was disc drive, which have to be almost the same width of one DVD case. If disc drive became thinner, it became more breakable. There are a lot of earlier age users, so Nintendo have a very strict standard. After a lot of trials and errors, they finally got it by internal reinforcing pad.

 

He also told that they strained at using slot-in drive. If they decided to use GameCube-like disc drive (opening the top to change discs), the width of the drive could be thinner, the cost could be cheaper, and the decay durability be better. But, as he said before, the space near TV is very limited, so they thought that Wii-users feel more comfortable by using slot-in for changeing discs.

 

Mr.Ashida is in charge of the design of the Wii console, the Wiimote, the package and the logo. They don’t want to make it like a mad woman’s breakfast around the TV. Not only the matter of size but also shape. Nintendo64 had a lot of curves in its shape, so it was difficult to find the place to set it. On the other hand, the design of GameCube was “the design of toy”. From SNES, the designs of Nintendo’s console was like a toy, and this was intentional attempt. But the average of the ages of users has changed, he feels that the balance between the “toy-like” design and the “AV-equipment-like” design is very important. The keywords are, “the design that nobody hates”. Not a toy, not a AV equipment, they want Wii to be a kind of interior accessories. Mr.Ashida decided to form Wii-design team. The designs of Nintendo console used to pruduced by one designer, but this time, he consulted widely with young designers inside Nintendo.

 

The turing point was the idea of the stand. Young desiner produced the Wii’s stand, and it allows representing new shape by combine Wii with it. A few weeks before E3(2005), Mr.Ashida and his team finishd this design. At the first presentation to Mr. Iwata, they got the go-ahead. Then, the design was made in public at E3, and Mr.Ashida was very, very surprized because he

didn’t know that the design was to be displayed at E3 2005.

 

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Posted
  Twilight said:
It´s really amazing how much better Nintendo´s designers have gotten in few years. Just compare GC or original DS to DSLite or Wii. :shock:

 

GC is one of the most stylish consoles ever in my opinion.

Posted

The GC is my second top console in terms of how it looks as i think its very stylish due to the light when its turned on and the circular shiny part at the top of the GC

 

The Wii is the top console in terms of how it looks due to its sleek design and of course that sexy glow from its drive

Posted
  Ninty 182 said:
O.K I know opinions can't technically be wrong, but that is.

 

Well, what else is there to beat it? Apart from the DSLite I also think that the GC is the most stylish console released (the 360 maybe beats it). The Wii easily beats it though imo.

Posted
  Hellfire said:
GC is one of the most stylish consoles ever in my opinion.

 

Yeah, I would kind of go along with that to an extent, I love my wee purple box. However the Wii design is utter sexiness and definately the best of this generation, small and sleek beats big and beastly. An interesting read, means I appriciate the design all the more knowing the problems they had to overcome to get it, plus it's nice to know the thoughts behind the whole concept.

Posted
  DiemetriX said:
Why'O why Was the cube purple >_<

 

Hey, I liked the purple. Every new piece of technology that comes out seems to be a sterile and generic black, white or silver following a crappy trend for all gadgets to look futuristic and minimalist. It was refreshing to have something new with a bit of colour and character from the usual. That's why I hold out hope of getting some variation in colour for the Wii (not that the black and white Wii's look bad, but I wouldn't mind something a bit different, blue maybe).

Posted

thanks for that article smalltac. very nice. a good read.

 

umm. i think that the thinned down version of the ps2 was more stylish than the gamecube.

 

i have to admit when i first read Hellfires post on 'the gamecube being one of the more stylish consoles', i didnt think much of it. but then i began to think of the other consoles... and their general looks. in terms of design and overall 'sexiness', i would have to go:

 

Wii >> ps2(lite) > dreamcast > gamecube

 

the wii DOES look incredible. so incredible that i took the liberty to put it in bold font...

Posted
  DiemetriX said:
Why'O why Was the cube purple >_<

 

 

That was a mistake that must never happen again. That is one major reason that killed it from the start in Western Countries. :hmm:

 

At least Wii is here now, following on from the new sleek DS Lite. Wii is light, small, sexy and attractive. Nintendo have finally learned how to design an attractive product.:love:

Posted
  blender said:
part 3 is up at gonintendo

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

 

BTW if people had such an issue with the Cube being pruple, why didnt they buy a black one since both colours where availble at launch.

Posted

not where I lived.

 

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Posted

I wanted a purple cube, but the shop where I preordered my cube already sold all its purple cubes by the time I got there (they didn't have much purple cubes to begin with), so I was forced to take a black one.

The purple cube is like a statement, while the black one is something that's easily hidden between the rest of your stuff.

Posted

This is pretty interesting tidbit:

 

"Takeda: Wii is the first machine that Nintendo can update its OS(Operating System). So, possiblity of Wii can be enlarged in the future. You can look forward to this feature, and I am very excited about it too."

Posted

Upgradable OS for the win.

If Wii has even more high quality material it probably survive a stampede of elephants. It's clear that the hardware is not very powerful, not only because of costs, but because they're really taking the noise and power consumption issue seriously. It's really a new line of thinking.

Posted

Nice. That means the Wii can have better features in the future, like better online service. It also means Opera can upgrade the browser over the next years and maybe include an e-mail client and chat/IRC software with a possible Wii keyboard.

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