Power of Design

There is no questioning the hours of deliberation, discussion, and planning that goes into the general industrial design of a console. It may not occur to you, but it's there, nestled in your entertainment center. Your current Xbox® video game console carries thousands of hours of work within each curve, corner, input, and button. Each subtle detail of the Xbox 360™ console tells a similar tale …

A fusion of form and function.

Uncluttered
It's tough to project a simple elegance while maintaining a distinctive feel, but that's precisely what Xbox 360 achieves. Consider the following attributes:

• The DVD drive and power button aside, the whole of the front-facing console maintains a cool soft white veneer.
• The memory card slots are small and unobtrusive, and when the cards are inserted they don't jut out, maintaining a more subtle profile.
• The two USB ports in front are hidden behind a small port (on the bottom if the unit is stood upright, on the far right if it's on its side), so if wireless controllers are used, the ports need not be visible at all.
• The power button and surrounding ring of light give further weight to the gentle design. The light is not garish, but soft, and, while distinctive, it's also productive. The ring of light looks whole, but it's actually divided in several different quadrants, which, if needed, can change color to provide information (perhaps signaling a game invite).

Xbox 360 has adopted a different look than what everyone
is used to, yet it continues to stay true to its roots.

Hourglass
If there's one feature that gives the Xbox 360 a signature look, it's the slightly concave "hourglass" appearance. As one designer noted, it seems to be holding its breath before exhaling. All its power and all its strength seems to be held tight within, ready to burst out at any moment.

Coloring
Consoles need to look as if they belong, and sitting alongside whatever tech you've got (sound system receiver, DVD player, TV, VCR) the candy-white Xbox 360 looks like a long-lost sexy relative. Its contrasting colors (the silver DVD drive, black infrared sensor, and black removable hard drive) don't call undue attention to themselves, either.

J Allard (in a recent 1UP.com article) mentions, "We did a lot of color studies. Part of it is that plasma screens are going really big with glass and frosted glass. They're getting away from black as the framing, so as we move into the HD Era and think about the next 10 years of TV, there's that."

Pop the Top
Embracing every opportunity to offer the user more control, Xbox 360 gives you removable faceplates. The whole front plate of the console can be popped off and altered however you see fit.

Paint it, draw on it, layer it with stickers; do what you will to make it your own. What's more, Microsoft® will offer professionally designed faceplates, and we'll likely see other companies getting into the mix with their own designs as well.

Internal Wireless
It may seem a small point, but if you've seen the stunted receivers and nodules you've had to plug in for wireless control in the past, you'll appreciate that all the wireless controller reception is built directly into Xbox 360. It's not even as complicated as plug and play; it's just play now.

Removable Drive
Another marriage of function and form is the slick looking hard drive that slots into the top (or left hand side if placed horizontally) of Xbox 360. It looks completely natural when connected to the console, as if it's belonged there the whole time.

It can easily be removed and taken to a friend's house when needed. More remarkable is that the design continues to look fluid with it gone. It doesn't appear to be "missing" anything, which is an added plus.

There's no doubting Xbox 360 has adopted a different look than what everyone is used to, yet it continues to stay true to its roots. It's identifiable for what it is, and recognizable as something new, an elegant blend of form and function. Welcome to the next generation.

Article by Alex McLain