6 ms·

I can't believe I'm reading an article touting the design smarts of the Thinkpad designers... honestly I've always thought that the standard black Thinkpads wer

by acabal 14y ago

I can't believe I'm reading an article touting the design smarts of the Thinkpad designers... honestly I've always thought that the standard black Thinkpads were unspeakably ugly. And I'm not even a design snob. Usable yes, but aesthetic? No way.

oftenwrong 14y ago
Maybe I am broken, but I think they are the best looking laptops. Ironically, their "function-over-form" design yields a form I find beautiful.
w1ntermute 14y ago
I use ThinkPads and their timeless design is one of my favorite things about them. For a lot of people, shiny aluminum is great, but some appreciate the ThinkPad color scheme.
- acabal 14y ago
  I'm not knocking the color scheme, I think black with red highlights can look pretty slick myself. It's just the overall feeling I get... it just looks so sharp-edged and industrial. To me that's the opposite of aesthetic. On the other hand they're doubtlessly excellent machines and there's no accounting for taste, even mine :)
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    > To me that's the opposite of aesthetic. I see "aesthetic" as a subjective concept, so I don't really understand how it can have an opposite. It's a matter of opinion, and for a lot of people, the ThinkPad design has what they're looking for.
zerostar07 14y ago
I think it's intentional, well, not ugly but no effort to make it beautiful either. I see my computer as a tool; do people care if their electric drill looks ugly? Plus, if you ask me, sturdy case, functional keyboard, docking connector and myriad of ports is a very smart design that trumps macbooks.
anonymouz 14y ago
Personally, I find them very aesthetic. But this comes down to a subjective feeling. More important in my opinion is the functional design, which Thinkpads really excel at.
kitsune_ 14y ago
The ThinkPad was designed by Richard Sapper [1], somewhat of a legend in industrial design. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sapper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sapper
- daviddaviddavid 14y ago
  I found it rather bizarre that this fact was not mentioned.
geoka9 14y ago
It's probably not slick enough to blend into an office with a glamorous interior design. http://www.eurotech.cz/image/file/361/x60_2.jpg http://www.eurotech.cz/image/file/361/x60_2.jpg But when I see this, I get an urge to touch the keyboard, run the shell, fire up the editor... No other laptop makes me want to do this just with its looks. And that's what I think good industrial design is about.
sedachv 14y ago
You're confusing design with visual appeal. Steve Jobs loved to rant about design and longetivity, but Apple laptops only seem to excel on visual appeal (and this is a recent phenomenon - just look at the first PowerBook G4s). Design has to be functional, and this is where Apple always makes sacrifices. Bringing chiclet-style keyboards back into vogue (to the point where even Lenovo now puts them on Thinkpads) shows a complete disregard for the functionality of the laptop as a computer. Try comparing the new apple-style chiclet keys, to "skateboard-ramp" shaped keys (an "innovation" introduced by IBM to save costs), to the spherical shaped keys (http://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/?page_id=1458#shapes http://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/?page_id=1458#shapes) of high-end keyboards from the 1980s and you will see how far computer keyboards have actually degenerated. This isn't just my opinion - Kathleen Potosnak's review of literature (appears as chapter 21 in Helander's Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction) shows that shaped keys are better for typing. There's a lot to be said about 3-button mice as well. One thing I do like about Macs is the touchpad on the newest ones (it took Apple a long time to make them really useful, though). Again, this is a sacrifice in terms of functionality. You can do things like https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy with the Thinkpad touchpoint and even the trackpad, but it's not convenient with most other trackpads (especially ones like the Mac's that don't have separate keys). In terms of longetivity and visual design, I'm typing this on a 2004 Thinkpad T43. Nothing on this machine is broken, and despite 8 years of almost continuous use, even the keyboard labels only have a few nicks. This laptop looks as new or as old as the early 90s 386 Thinkpad we have at the hackerspace or the X230 my friend bought a few months ago. It wasn't until the PowerBook that Apple hit on a design with any sort of longetivity. Besides Apple and IBM/Lenovo, there's no one making laptops with a lasting design across many product generations.
- cpeterso 14y ago
  I've always thought the ThinkPad's keyboard is one of its worst attributes. The keyboard's layout is very cramped. The keys feel flimsy and loose. Their edges are sharp and exposed when you type.
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    For the life of me I cannot find a single sharp edge on this keyboard, as I type on it right now.
dfc 14y ago
Aesthetics: the creation and appreciation of beauty In my opinion there is nothing more beautiful on a laptop than the thinkpads hardened steel hinges.
- miahi 14y ago
  I found the hard way (repairing a T60 broken hinge) that the steel hinges are strong, but the part that links the hinge to the display frame is thin and made of magnesium alloy. It was so thin and small that I ended up fixing it in place with epoxy.
snogglethorpe 14y ago
> I've always thought that the standard black Thinkpads were unspeakably ugly. And I'm not even a design snob. "Ugly", is of course, subjective, but do keep in mind that the original thinkpad line is generally considered a design classic. Also keep in mind that thinkpads in the last decade or so have shifted a great deal design-wise from the original, losing much of the aesthetic purity along the way. The original thinkpad was yer basic stark black monolith (all right angles, no curves or wedges to speak of) with the barest minimum of accent (the bright red nub pointer and button markers), and a lovely silky surface texture that made you want to caress it. No tacky chrome-look plastic. No touchpad to bloat up the lower surface. Just quality of materials and purity of form. While recent thinkpads share the color scheme with the original, they've lost many of the other iconic design cues, both obvious and subtle. So I kinda see where you're coming from if you're talking about recent models, but the original thinkpads were absolutely beautiful.

by acabal 14y ago

oftenwrong 14y ago

Maybe I am broken, but I think they are the best looking laptops. Ironically, their "function-over-form" design yields a form I find beautiful.

w1ntermute 14y ago

I use ThinkPads and their timeless design is one of my favorite things about them. For a lot of people, shiny aluminum is great, but some appreciate the ThinkPad color scheme.

acabal 14y ago
I'm not knocking the color scheme, I think black with red highlights can look pretty slick myself. It's just the overall feeling I get... it just looks so sharp-edged and industrial. To me that's the opposite of aesthetic. On the other hand they're doubtlessly excellent machines and there's no accounting for taste, even mine :)
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  > To me that's the opposite of aesthetic. I see "aesthetic" as a subjective concept, so I don't really understand how it can have an opposite. It's a matter of opinion, and for a lot of people, the ThinkPad design has what they're looking for.

zerostar07 14y ago

I think it's intentional, well, not ugly but no effort to make it beautiful either. I see my computer as a tool; do people care if their electric drill looks ugly? Plus, if you ask me, sturdy case, functional keyboard, docking connector and myriad of ports is a very smart design that trumps macbooks.

anonymouz 14y ago

Personally, I find them very aesthetic. But this comes down to a subjective feeling. More important in my opinion is the functional design, which Thinkpads really excel at.

kitsune_ 14y ago

The ThinkPad was designed by Richard Sapper [1], somewhat of a legend in industrial design. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sapper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sapper

daviddaviddavid 14y ago
I found it rather bizarre that this fact was not mentioned.

geoka9 14y ago

It's probably not slick enough to blend into an office with a glamorous interior design. http://www.eurotech.cz/image/file/361/x60_2.jpg http://www.eurotech.cz/image/file/361/x60_2.jpg But when I see this, I get an urge to touch the keyboard, run the shell, fire up the editor... No other laptop makes me want to do this just with its looks. And that's what I think good industrial design is about.

sedachv 14y ago

You're confusing design with visual appeal. Steve Jobs loved to rant about design and longetivity, but Apple laptops only seem to excel on visual appeal (and this is a recent phenomenon - just look at the first PowerBook G4s). Design has to be functional, and this is where Apple always makes sacrifices. Bringing chiclet-style keyboards back into vogue (to the point where even Lenovo now puts them on Thinkpads) shows a complete disregard for the functionality of the laptop as a computer. Try comparing the new apple-style chiclet keys, to "skateboard-ramp" shaped keys (an "innovation" introduced by IBM to save costs), to the spherical shaped keys (http://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/?page_id=1458#shapes http://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/?page_id=1458#shapes) of high-end keyboards from the 1980s and you will see how far computer keyboards have actually degenerated. This isn't just my opinion - Kathleen Potosnak's review of literature (appears as chapter 21 in Helander's Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction) shows that shaped keys are better for typing. There's a lot to be said about 3-button mice as well. One thing I do like about Macs is the touchpad on the newest ones (it took Apple a long time to make them really useful, though). Again, this is a sacrifice in terms of functionality. You can do things like https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy with the Thinkpad touchpoint and even the trackpad, but it's not convenient with most other trackpads (especially ones like the Mac's that don't have separate keys). In terms of longetivity and visual design, I'm typing this on a 2004 Thinkpad T43. Nothing on this machine is broken, and despite 8 years of almost continuous use, even the keyboard labels only have a few nicks. This laptop looks as new or as old as the early 90s 386 Thinkpad we have at the hackerspace or the X230 my friend bought a few months ago. It wasn't until the PowerBook that Apple hit on a design with any sort of longetivity. Besides Apple and IBM/Lenovo, there's no one making laptops with a lasting design across many product generations.

cpeterso 14y ago
I've always thought the ThinkPad's keyboard is one of its worst attributes. The keyboard's layout is very cramped. The keys feel flimsy and loose. Their edges are sharp and exposed when you type.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  For the life of me I cannot find a single sharp edge on this keyboard, as I type on it right now.

dfc 14y ago

Aesthetics: the creation and appreciation of beauty In my opinion there is nothing more beautiful on a laptop than the thinkpads hardened steel hinges.

miahi 14y ago
I found the hard way (repairing a T60 broken hinge) that the steel hinges are strong, but the part that links the hinge to the display frame is thin and made of magnesium alloy. It was so thin and small that I ended up fixing it in place with epoxy.

snogglethorpe 14y ago

> I've always thought that the standard black Thinkpads were unspeakably ugly. And I'm not even a design snob. "Ugly", is of course, subjective, but do keep in mind that the original thinkpad line is generally considered a design classic. Also keep in mind that thinkpads in the last decade or so have shifted a great deal design-wise from the original, losing much of the aesthetic purity along the way. The original thinkpad was yer basic stark black monolith (all right angles, no curves or wedges to speak of) with the barest minimum of accent (the bright red nub pointer and button markers), and a lovely silky surface texture that made you want to caress it. No tacky chrome-look plastic. No touchpad to bloat up the lower surface. Just quality of materials and purity of form. While recent thinkpads share the color scheme with the original, they've lost many of the other iconic design cues, both obvious and subtle. So I kinda see where you're coming from if you're talking about recent models, but the original thinkpads were absolutely beautiful.