Xbox 360 Design: The Back Story Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Xbox 360 Design: The Back Story Posted by XanTium | March 19 20:18 EST | News Category: Xbox360

Fastcompany.com profiled JDK designer Michael Jager, and gives some insight into the design of the Xbox 360: [QUOTE] It was David versus Goliath, with Attila the Hun thrown in to make it interesting. Microsoft had invited three brand designers to Redmond, Washington, in 2004 to present a new identity for the upcoming Xbox 360. (...) Led by Xbox's global brand director at the time, Don Hall, some 20 members of the gaming division gathered to hear the back-to-back-to-back presentations. First up was Michael Jager, JDK's creative director. Standing before the tribunal, Jager (pronounced like the Rolling Stone) illustrated his vision through a combination of street theater, design psychology, and cultural fluency. Comparing the original Xbox with the Incredible Hulk, Jager used a razor to slash an X in a sheet of paper and then thrust his head through the hole. "X today is all AARGGHHH!" he bellowed. Pure aggressive power. He then withdrew his head, flipped the paper, and revealed how that X could become a doorway, "an invitation to an experience." Jager acknowledged power as a critical component separating Xbox from its competitors but urged the company to see it--and express it-- differently. "Our approach was to transition Xbox from this hulk of escaping power into this quiet power that is lurking, something still incredibly dangerous but with more of an elegance and grace," he recalls. "The analogy we used was Bruce Lee." And thus were two firms felled by a single stone. "We were all just blown away by JDK," Hall remembers. "As soon as Michael and his team walked out, I looked around the room and knew it was just a formality to sit through the other presentations." Indeed, Jager's illustrative shorthand became a mantra for the 360 team as it created the look and feel of the new system. "Whenever we evaluated our work in terms of guiding our decisions for Xbox 360," Hall says, "it was like, 'This is too Hulk' or 'We need more Bruce Lee.'" [/QUOTE] Full Story: fastcompany.com

[infamous_Q]

too bad no one ever said, in the earlier stages, "we need a quieter dvd drive" or "better fans" lol

[feflicker]

That's just horrible business. What do you have to lose by watching the other presentations?

I like the 360 design, don't get me wrong!

Wouldn't it have been interesting to see the wolverine version, the jet li version, or, i don't know, the "this would perfectly meld into someones home theater" version? It's NEVER bad to have too many good ideas imo... Maybe the next presenter would have suggested a lame rounded top

[aolers]

That's just horrible business. What do you have to lose by watching the other presentations?

They were saying after the first presentation, they knew that was the design. It was just a formality to sit through the rest.. They wouldn't call three groups and then just pick the first and say bye to the rest...

[gaming fanboy]

too bad no one ever said, in the earlier stages, "we need a quieter dvd drive" or "better fans" lol

no kidding

[Barnolde]

*Warning*
Long-winded rant:

It's a stupid design, they attempted (this being the keyword) to go for aesthetics, instead of being technically proficient, so they ended up failing on both fronts.

The main complaint with the Xbox was size, what does the 360 do? Deceive you. MS likes deception (MS points pricing is another example off the top of my head, not to mention the Core and the barebones Vista, it's all marketing), they bank on deception. There's no room inside the original Xbox, yet the HDD and power supply are internal.

The 360 gives you a giant fucking powerbrick and a non-standard HDD, which has been reduced to a glorified memory card, with the illusion of choice (removing a core feature of your previous system is asinine, imagine if the GCN came out with only 2 controller ports). Although the HDD being external has paid off, so you can keep it when you have to send your system out to be repaired. Yet it's basically the same size and weight as the Xbox, not to mention being worse quality and louder than a console should ever be, they completely ignored the REAL issues.

There's nothing elegant about it, it's big, loud and clunky. Being vertical looks better, but I certainly don't trust the 360 when it's vertical, so that's kind of useless. When it's horizontal, it lacks a place in the front for grip. I have fun with it (it's all about the games after all), but I'll be damned if it's not the one of worst designed consoles out there and ironically it's modeled after a dead person, how fitting.

"Double concavity"
"Derived from an inhale"


For the Xbox 3, why not make a console that's not only reliable, but one that isn't forever gimped by a cheapass marketing decision?

[Verity]

Thank you, Barnolde. Somebody who agrees the basic 360 design is dumb, and for more than just aesthetic reasons.

Personally I think the giant power brick (of the 360) was partly a liability issue, with some of those original Xbox internal PSU's (Fox!!) being potential fire hazards. Remember those cords "recalls" they issued? Hah, the fusable links might help prevent your Xbox from catching fire, but never solved the actual problem with those flakey PSUs. Anyway, an external PSU is far easier to recall and replace if there's an issue.

As some of you already know, I think the 360 design is gawdawful. I love my original black Xboxen, but the 360 is horrifying. At least the upcoming black 360 will be easier to hide in the entertainment shelf.

This post has been edited by Verity: Mar 22 2007, 01:43 AM