The Passing of a legend

Don't panic, this isn't an obituary for Phillipe Starke, Dick Powell or Richard Seymour. No, but the family is sad non the less, because on Monday Freddie the Hamster passed away.

So why mention that on a blog about design? Well I said Freddie was a legend (named after famed comedian Freddie Starr) and this is because not only was he a little crazy in his antics (no he didn't bite the head off a human... it was just a joke that the press got hold of, he was going to sue you know) but Freddie was a legendary design guru. Oh yes, Freddie knew a cool design when he saw it, he might not have had any RayBan's (do you know how difficult it is to get RayBan's hamster size?) but he did have a Habitrail Ovo Suite... very swish.

Now in my humble opinion (me humble? opinionated yes, but humble?) the Ovo is a fantastic combination of form and function. it is clear that the designers, engineers, marketing and research guys have put a lot of hard work into the Ovo. The clever way that the tubes use a single moulding that is mirror image across a plane normal to the split line means only one moulding is needed to make the two part assembly. The ease of assembly so the kids can take it apart to clean out the hamsters old bedding (do you seriously know any kid that looks after the family pet?) and the array of add on accessories such as a training wheel, a mini maze and a sleeping pod et.al.

However I do have to temper my enthusiasm with the knowledge of having lived with the Habitrail Ovo, the material has proven a little fragile, more especially on the large 'helmet visor' like cover of which two were broken. OK it was misuse, well, that is if you consider miss use being an 8 year old dropping it on to a linoleum floor from waist height, or Mrs Buff bumping into it with the Dyson? Personally I don't think that could be considered misuse. We industrial designers should design not only for manufacture but also for living with, and that means understanding how people use things. In the past perhaps these things didn't matter in what has been a 'throw away society', but these days of personal and corporate social responsibility to each other and the environment, do we really want to be designing product so fragile as they need replacing before even the warranty runs out?

Another gripe we had with the Habitrail Ovo has been all the little nooks and crannies that trap dirt and can't easily be cleaned out, especially the patented connecting rings which overtime jam up and become stiff to turn the locking mechanism, but also wear rapidly and fail to grip the tubes the result being the penthouse suddenly becomes a bungalow and the whole thing swings down under its own weight.

That said, the Habitrail Ovo is still a cool if a tad expensive design with only few minor flaws. Still, I think industrial designers can do better, should do better, must do better