The electric shower?
Check out this new design idea: Shower To-Go http://www.yankodesign.com/2013/04/19/shower-to-go/
Basically it's a hand held 'electric shower' and could do to washing what the electric razor does for shaving. The name electric shower is something I just came up with, but terror and feelings of panic aside, it captures the point.
The inner product designer in me wants to love this rather sexy and sports image driven device, clearly aimed at a male buyer (do women have problems washing? Would they use that thing on their hair) but I feel it becomes more art than function. Why? Because it's one step too far for mankind. So let's assume it works great and I can look and smell great with this device, the action of rubbing a vibrating(?) stick over your body like a portable steam cleaner is so divorced from the action of bathing or showering that it's not going to be an activity that is obvious or natural to any person. The though of 'really?' and 'what is that' would strike first. Second would come a general feeling of unease, the basic function of the product does not fit in with our lives, we do not emotionally recognise it. So rather than this product fitting into an emotional hole in us like say, the iPhone did, we have to crowbar it in, and that is not good design (no matter how well executed I think it is).
All this is not to say it could not one day happen. After all, the step between showering and this product is less than the step from the first phone to the iPhone, but society needs a path and a helping hand. With the iPhone, it was decades of innovative and sexy phone design in the home, followed by decades of innovative sexy phone design in your pocket. Each generation of mobile phone took us on the path from bulky bricks to slim and sexy 'clever' devices. Then, in 2007 we were finally ready in society and the iPhone story kicked off. Had it launched in 1910 (great steam punk image here) it may have failed. Case and point the tablet. Launched by Microsoft in 2002 it was ignored as irrelevant, but a decade later with our smart phone training leading a path, we were ready and the rest is iPad history.
The inner product designer in me wants to love this rather sexy and sports image driven device, clearly aimed at a male buyer (do women have problems washing? Would they use that thing on their hair) but I feel it becomes more art than function. Why? Because it's one step too far for mankind. So let's assume it works great and I can look and smell great with this device, the action of rubbing a vibrating(?) stick over your body like a portable steam cleaner is so divorced from the action of bathing or showering that it's not going to be an activity that is obvious or natural to any person. The though of 'really?' and 'what is that' would strike first. Second would come a general feeling of unease, the basic function of the product does not fit in with our lives, we do not emotionally recognise it. So rather than this product fitting into an emotional hole in us like say, the iPhone did, we have to crowbar it in, and that is not good design (no matter how well executed I think it is).
All this is not to say it could not one day happen. After all, the step between showering and this product is less than the step from the first phone to the iPhone, but society needs a path and a helping hand. With the iPhone, it was decades of innovative and sexy phone design in the home, followed by decades of innovative sexy phone design in your pocket. Each generation of mobile phone took us on the path from bulky bricks to slim and sexy 'clever' devices. Then, in 2007 we were finally ready in society and the iPhone story kicked off. Had it launched in 1910 (great steam punk image here) it may have failed. Case and point the tablet. Launched by Microsoft in 2002 it was ignored as irrelevant, but a decade later with our smart phone training leading a path, we were ready and the rest is iPad history.
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