One of the most famous product ever. Since Edison invents the light bulb we have used this small invention for about 100 years.
The first reason why I have chosen this as the best consumer product is because of its wide-spread use. It is all around us. We can just simply find it everywhere. I can even see some of light bulb in my room right now.
But that's not the only reason. I gave a high mark for this because the impact of this light bulb has been enormous during 20 Century. This invention has lighted up every place. It basically helped industrial revolution. After this invention had been broadly used, the productivities of all over the world have increased. The increase of productivities encourages industrial revolution to spread out.
I personally believe that if there had not been the invention of light bulb, the Industrial revolution would not have happened, therefore, there would not have been such job "Industrial design". So as I am an industrial design student, I thank the light bulb.
Richard (Soon Myoung Suh)
I agree with you. Light bulbs were probably the best product I've seen. Personally I cannot do anything in the dark. I cannot stand studying or reading with no light turned on. Without light our lives would've been so different; we would be limited to do everything during the day or rely on candles. There would be no night life. And many other products, such as projectors, lamps, headlights, etc, would never exist.
ReplyDelete- Hannie Choi
I didn't even think of these! But it's true, I don't know where we'd all be without them - what I find amazing is that their design and use is almost completely the same as when they were first invented.
ReplyDeleteHolly
Holly lights have changed for eco friendliness in their design. duffer.
ReplyDeleteI wonder though if the candle in fact is what should be here rather than the electric light bulb. We were doing pretty good with candles, and there were jobs for people to use oil lamps and stuff...and candle stick makers...and life was less busy then. I guess though on the flip side - gambling has been great because of the light bulb...so economically i guess this is a good consumer product...twisted.
Mote
Great choice, Richard. I agree, the light bulb is an effective source of light that makes activities, that would otherwise be extremely difficult to pull off, in the absence of sunlight, easy -- an obvious one though.
ReplyDeleteYet we seem to forget that simple LEDs do so much in the way of making other products what they are, some of which people have chosen for this week's blog. i.e. the fridge, iphone etc. Essential the LED may be for those products, but even then an LED can be used for a product that may not necessarily need light. It can act to enhance the product. For example, a button will light up after pressing it to give the user feedback. Such subtle ways in which light is used proves to give that product an edge over one that doesn't.
Mote, I guess you answered your own question with "Life was less busy then" - can you imagine how troublesome and inefficient it would be to light up so many candles for large area when a flick of a switch would do?
I only have one critism for the light bulb, which I guess isn't directed at the light bulb itself, but the switch. Why must they put identical light switches in the one panel without any labelling? It requires the user to test all the switches in order to find the right one (waste of time/frustration/electricity if u ask me).
Cynthia
Nice post and discussion.
ReplyDeleteCynthia, have a read of Donald Norman's "The design of everyday things" it goes into this exact problem.
For anyone with a bigger interest in this, the cover story of the latest Wired magazine is lighting and LEDs (US legislation is banning incandescent bulbs from 100W downwards, starting next year).
Robbie