Handtops, UMPC - Looks Count. - Handtops, OQO, Flipstart

Looks really do count! The OQO Model 01/01+ and the Flipstart are two of the best examples of what really works, and what really does not.

No Flipstart bashing here, but it has become increasing evident that the Flipstart's looks, more than any other single factor, are its worst enemy.

Looks are not nearly as subjective as we all might like to think. We are genetically pre-disposed to be attracted to good looking people. Without going into a huge amount of detail, substantial research conducted on newborn babies indicates they have a strong preference for people with good, even, fine-boned facial features, or in other words, classically “beautiful” faces.

There is a strong indication that this preference for good looks extends into every aspect of our lives, although it can be altered to an extent by education and cultural input.

If our preference for good looking things is built in, we can take as a given that form can be attractive or not. Balance, proportions and fitness for purpose also play a roll in how we react to things, but looks are the primary factor.

As a result of this and some other factors, how something looks also engenders in us an expectation of how it should perform.

The OQO Model 01/01+ looked (for most people at least) small, neat and upmarket. Its thin margin's around the screen, the lack of clutter when the unit was closed, its proportions and so forth all contributed to its good looks, and its aura of no nonsense capability. Whether or not it lived up to these expectations is a moot point, a lot of people were attracted to the OQO Model 01/01+ as much by its looks as any other factor. And since we are generally prepared to be more accommodating of people and things we are attracted to, this helped the OQO Model 01/01+ survive some of its weaker points.

The production Flipstart does not have the same charm, looks or overall attractiveness of the Flipstart prototype. It has been called ugly among other things, and even if it is not ugly, it is not drop dead gorgeous. Its lines and form all suggest a bigger unit than it actually is. If one takes four blocks of wood, one cut to the dimensions of the OQO Model 01/01+, one cut to the dimensions of the Flipstart, one cut to the dimensions of the Sony UX , and one cut to the dimensions of a 15” laptop, it is clear that the Flipstart is in fact a very small unit indeed, not much different in size to the Sony UX. But in real life, the Flipstart just looks so much bigger due to what can only, in this context at least, be called a poor design.

It is possibly due to this perception of size and bulk, more than any other single factor, that the Flipstart has had such a negative reaction in certain sectors. There is a attitude of “if it is so big, it should have so much more in it”.

I am not going to argue the technical specifications of the Flipstart here, they are what they are. But the way the Flipstart looks seems to promise much more. It looks like a muscle car, and it has a sub-compact engine. If the design team had styled it differently, even though they kept the same dimensions, our expectations of the unit might have been very different.

If styling and looks are important, and they shapes our expectations, what happens when reality does not live up to those expectations? Generally, we are disappointed. No amount of rationalisation will change that.

If a lesson can be learned from the Flipstart and The OQO Model 01/01+, it is that looks can influence to a much more profound extent than we might like to believe our attitudes towards items, and this in turn has a bearing on how successful those items might be.

It would seem that the best way to produce a world beating Handtop is to first, before all else, make sure that it looks the part. If everything else is acceptable, it will succeed.