Remember the simpler childhood days of using the dropper to pick a color and spill it *carefully* on another sheet? We then advanced from papers to MS Paint and I doubt any of us were able to master that virtual dropper. Now we are in the Apple era but the nostalgia of the simple dropper is not lost and that was the inspiration for the iSpoid – a conceptual dropper that picks up data instead of colors and we are here for this!
The motion of using a dropper to transfer colors was reinterpreted with the data delivery interface with an Apple pencil-like tool which has been christened as iSpoid for this concept project. The group of Korean designers who came up with this conceptual product wanted to make data transfer and data sharing between devices as easy and joyful without the stress of connecting via Bluetooth, hard drives, and the quest for finding the right device to AirDrop. The product development phase involved sketching, brainstorming about usability and making the device itself as physically similar to a dropper as possible – if you observe the form, its a hybrid between the color dropper and the Apple Pencil. The action is instinctive with this device, you position the dropper on the file, press the bubble on top and watch the 3 lights on the tip light up indicating the file has been picked. You then drop it on the desired device and the lights will dim down just like releasing color from a dropper, but here it is the data.
Keeping the aesthetics of Apple, the iSpoid also has a conceptual magnetic charger where you can mount the tool in a vertical position on the sleek stand. The package design and shape are inspired from a measuring cylinder. The concept delivers on its aim to create a minimal, user-friendly, functional device that makes co-working more efficient. Will data scientists like to be called data artists after this?
Designers: Chi-Eun Jang, Hyeokryul Kwon, Jaegeun Kim, Jeongmin Lim.
