[Sigia-l] Just for you women out there

[Will Parker]

On Jun 8, 2007, at 2:54 AM, Ziya Oz wrote:

> Paola Kathuria:
>
>> it's not a big leap to pinkify laptops

An acquaintance of mine at Microsoft had somehow managed to pick up  
on the Japanese kawaii esthetic. Her office was littered with toy  
robots and manga figurines -- along with the obligatory Hello Kitty  
paraphenalia -- and was known to occasionally attend meetings in full  
glamour makeup and a pink tutu. Last I heard from her, she was the  
release manager for the Tablet PC team. Damn fine one, too.

If NEC decides to create a convertible Tablet PC in this product  
line, I'm quite sure she'll have one. After all, she's deeply  
involved the software that would run it.

> \iPods are 'pinkified' too. But, c'mon, look at a pink iPod and  
> then look at
> this monstrosity. It's not just the color. The whole thing just  
> grosses me
> out. I'd rather glue a brown Zune to my head than look at this,  
> wouldn't
> you?

Actually, sensei of the kawaii style would glue a brown Zune to their  
shoe. Unless they work for Microsoft.

> I'd easily pay $500 to be able to sit in on the meetings where its  
> design
> and branding were conducted. How many anthropologist were slain to  
> come up
> with that gender-cultural insight? Did their focus groups use eye  
> tracking
> equipment? Did they make paper prototypes? :-)

What I want to know is why NEC went with Hello Kitty instead of  
Hiroshige.

Several years ago I recall that there a craze among Palm and  
PowerBook owners to have their device cases hand-painted with  
Japanese lacquer in classic Japanese style.

In Western European terms, the NEC object is the 'original Madonna'  
version (ironically stereotypical) while the Japanese lacquerwork  
Palms were the Annie Leibovitz version.

Either way, NEC went for the cheap and gaudy end of the available  
cultural spectrum.

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If  
that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products.” -  
Steve Jobs