Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

First post I hope!

second, im sure.

Very interesting article with lots of design inspiration. I have to admit though, I’m not sure I would ever get that alarm put back together when I first wake up. I fear it would be broken after two days lol.

Ummm…what exactly happened to the 1200 character limit? This is over 3000. I know I worked pretty damn hard on editing and sizing down my submission to meet the requirements of this contest.

This article is really okay
Why do you keep saying that it’s poorly written?

Hello,

1st Class article.
Thanks.

I’ve seen at least half of these things before, the second half I don’t find beautiful at all (e.g. the alarm clock? It’s cool, but c’mon – not beautiful. Btw. there are tougher ones, like running or even flying away when the alarm starts – available in online stores with funny stuff n’ toys along with the USB buddies and the VooDoo Knife Block -> http://www.toys4boys.pl – just to mention my native one).

I’d call it rather “10 small things for daily life”. Still, I agree – cool idea for a top-ten-list.

Btw: isn’t “not bad” (in the poll) an acronym for “average” or something even better? Like “not bad, kid”. It’s rather positive, more than average, I’d say. What about replacing it with ‘poor’ and then ‘very bad’ or something, oppositely to ‘good’ and ‘excellent’? From one extreme to another.

Great stuff, I especially like the Animal Indexes and the shiny pillow! Would love to see some more beautiful things.

Have you categorized “Discussion articles” and “top-10 lists” in order to select winners? Are these 12 Winners will be categorize as 6 discussion articles and 6 top 10 lists? Since a limited character discussion article cannot compete with unlimited characters top-10 list. How its going to be judged?

Most of the items’ descriptions are copy/pasted..

Nice stuff, but I would have liked the list to be longer! I was sad to get to the end so quickly. I don’t know about that chair though, I think it lacks practical function. Good conversation starter, I bet!

I agree about the “first post” thing, by the way. Save that kiddy crap for lolcats websites where its at least kind of cute. No one cares if you’re first here. What’s the point? Do you grab your friends and go, “ooh look, I’m first on Smashing Magazine?”

Sad.

Inspirational for some. The puzzle clock will break your morning lol.

Not bad, interesting, but not really inspiring.

Excellent, like every post

lots of nice but useless stuff.

I must admit that I have not even read this article. Just scrolled down the picture and wow. I’ve got to get one of those Star Wars pen drives !!!!!!

promoting pointless consumerism. very unenlightened piece.

I agree with the sentiments that this post falls short of the quality expected for a top ten winner in this competition. Most of the list, copied descriptions aside, are merely items that have been popular on major design and gadget blogs over the past few months.

I’m not against a “shopping list of cool stuff” post, but seriously, given the obvious amount of time spent researching all the other content on Smashing Magazine, I would expect a much more interesting, original list then what was presented. At the very least, have some sort of coherent theme running through the items chosen.

That Mandarina Cell Phone might be the handiwork of one Peter Saville, does anyone know for sure?

Also, it’s a bit weak to keep hammering someone whose first language might not even be English (I’m guessing). What’s important is that they have a thought, and have the requisite imagination to see that thought through. This list isn’t half-bad by those counts.

Nice job with widening the scope of ‘design’, Smashing. Those posts relating purely to web design were getting old. More topics = more fun :)

hey,

I personally think that the article is exhaustive and superficial. I mean writing five lines isnt an over-do in general. It might be generally speaking just the language use that I am concerned about even if you guys have already changed things. The Observer always has his or her opinion about Art and Design and I just think that even if the Design aspects are great (exception might be this glowing pillow that that feels like a place holder to fullfill the top ten criteria) the author seem to be too loose, superficial, without a clear and better structure to why something is beautiful and therefore great in design. Its not like she said “most beautiful Product Design with great usability.” Saying that something is beautiful that makes live easier is for me too cheap and corny.

Sorry for being dozens for time repetitive and I hope you see my critique as constructive.

Oh man, I’d kill for a human-sized bed-pod like the pet bed! Mmmm, womb-like.

I really hope this isn’t indicative of the rests of the guest posts. Smashing Magazine is the best at posting useful, interesting articles. Unfortunately, this article is neither.

i agree with h.a.r.v that i wouldn’t call some of those “beautiful.”
the intro could be better written, it didn’t particularly move me to read the post (the great picture of the USB characters did).
and please refrain from saying that something is made for girls or made for boys, #3, things are often not used the way they were intended. and rather than saying it has useful features–please name a few.

A more accurate title would have been 10 Random Things I Saw On Notcot.org.

As someone else has already pointed out, every other description is either barely paraphrased or copied directly from other websites. It’s just advertising text rebranded – badly – as an original article.

There’s no unifying theme or style in either the items themselves or the accompanying text. No attempt was made to explain why any given item is worthy of the epithet “beautiful” – some of it, in fact, is pretty damned ugly.

I understand that the articles were chosen on the merit of their ability to generate controversy, but there’s a fairly significant difference between an article being controversial for its original, articulate, calculated stance on an issue, and an article being controversial because most of its shoddy content was simply plagiarized. This is the latter. Not cool, Smashing Magazine.

Grr, my formatting got messed up – that first paragraph should read:

“… every other article is either barely paraphrased or directly copied from other websites. It’s just advertising text rebranded – badly – as an original article.”

I think the comment I made this morning is in your spam inbox :D (or maybe I put too much links?)

Very nice article. I love voodoo knife block and shining pillow. Great work and cool inpiration! LOL

The items are interesting but the writing is poorly done.

I’m surprised the cardboard safari didn’t make the cut.

http://www.cardboardsafari.com

i wish retro phone is in my hand :(
Smashing! you always post nice article like always,

beautiful desingers and good idea…

I’ve got the the Voodoo knife at home, really like :)

wow very good!!!!!

Cool stuff. I hope this article wins the contest. I avoid buying useless stuff but I’d like to purchase many of the oddities listed here.

i am looking for those posters of Tomasz Opasinski, do any of you know where i can find it?

Junks

yes good designs
But we can make it more beautiful

I’m really need to get some of those USB Buddies! They look awesome. And the addon retro phone thing would be great to talk on at a stop light.