'crowd' by philipp schaake 'FUJITSU design award 2011' lifebook category

‘crowd’ by philipp schaake

‘crowd’ by philipp schaake of germany has received the ‘FUJITSU design award 2011’ runner-up prize from the lifebook category, selected from over 3000 participants from our recent designboom competition ‘a life with future computing‘, organized in collaboration with FUJITSU and DA – design association japan.

designer’s own words: the computing concept ‘crowd’ wants to celebrate a new kind of interaction between the user and his / her PC. without opening the device, the user can check information on his / her PC-status or engage in online activities with friends in a very intuitive and poetic way. on the one hand ‘crowd’ can be used like a typical laptop. on the other hand the user can activate a new, playful and haptic interface for surfing the web, chatting or mailing.

keypad mode

without even opening the device one is able to visualize information on his / her computer

putting a token on the touchpad activates the ‘interactive playground’. depending on the mode, different sized avatars represent friends who are online or display a history of web-sites you have visited. the sizes of the avatars are determined by the frequency in which you have contacted a certain person or have entered certain website in the past. this interface provides the user with a very clear and graphically based overview of his recent online activities.

break down of ‘crowd’ components

the size of avatars on your screen indicate the frequency in which you contact a person or visit a website

the two screens can be pulled apart and used individually

jury members (from left to right): ross lovegrove, birgit lohmann of designboom, gwenael nicolas (curiosity), toshiyuki inoko, ma yansong (MAD architects) and nobuo otani, corporate senior vice resident Fujitsu, kimitaka kato, Fujitsu design president (without photo).

— those wishing to republish an excerpt of this article, please have the courtesy to link back to this original article, and to mention that the project was designed for the ‘FUJITSU design award: a life with future computing’ competition, organized by designboom in collaboration with FUJITSU. thank you.