Small Surfaces

An interview with Nokia’s chief product designer, Alastair Curtis.

“With all products, it’s about the experience, not just what it looks like. This is the 8800. We looked at every element. The ring tones aren’t traditional ring tones. The ring tones were done by [musician] Ryuichi Sakamoto. This is a premium product, we wanted to give it that extra element of premium-ness by having sounds different from the traditional. We took the sound experience to another level by saying, when you open the product it should have a very distinct sound. Like certain car doors, when you open and close them, some feel good, some feel bad. We spent a huge amount of time trying to get the sound right. You can’t put it into a technical term, it just feels good.”

Link: Online Extra: A Chat with Nokia’s Alastair Curtis (businessweek.com)

(Tip of the hat to Dan Saffer, who just rated Small Surfaces one of the best interaction design blogs of 2006. Thanks!)