[IshKebab]

I used to work for Dyson and I think this is quite off in many ways.

* The industrial design of Dyson products is generally great. I don't think they poke you or anything like that. They even have nice affordances like all the things you can use being red. Contrast that with my terrible Shark where everything is black. Took me a good few seconds to find the bin release button. It also has an atrocious UX - a slow on/off button instead of a trigger, and an amazingly useless "smart power" feature that just varies the power almost completely randomly as you vacuum.

When I worked there all the vacuum guys were worried about Shark because their pickup is apparently better. They needn't have worried because their UX is so abysmal. Although I guess in fairness Which doesn't know UX exists.

* Some of the criticisms of the tech are valid, e.g. the hand dryers spraying water everywhere (they easily erode painted walls and now they generally install them only on tiles). But those are just flaws of the tech, they don't negate the fact that the hand dryers are much better than the standard cheap ones. He quotes the claimed hand drying time for a cheapo dryer as being close to an air blade but anyone that has ever used one knows how much of a lie that is. The washing machines did damage clothes but apparently the main reason they stopped making them was a manufacturing issue with the drum.

* I don't think anyone really believes that James Dyson is personally inventing all Dyson products now. That doesn't mean he has no influence. When I worked there (about 10 years ago tbf) he still had huge influence over the designs, especially the ones he cared about.

The one thing that is true is that Dyson won't make anything that isn't patentable because James Dyson dislikes his products being cloned so much. So even though though could make really good versions of normal products, they don't.

Also they are way too expensive. Though in fairness my shitty Shark was expensive too.

Don't buy a Shark.

[accrual]

> Although I guess in fairness Which doesn't know UX exists.

What is "Which" in this context? As used here it appears like a proper noun.

[rjsw]

It is a proper noun [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Which%3F

[accrual]

Thank you!

[2earth]

hey, author here, thought I'd reply to you. Cheers for reading and thanks for the feedback.

I wanted to explore how the focus on tech-centrism impacts the product design and styling. I do think Dyson makes compromises on cost and ergonomics to uphold their brand values. Does that mean the products are bad? No - but I think they could be better. Do I think a lot of other products on the market are far, FAR worse? yes. But Dyson asks us to hold them to much higher standards (and pay a lot more). So I think serious design criticism is warranted.

Dryer time - there is a huge spectrum here. There are many dryers which cost a fraction of an airblade and dry with similar speed. My real point is that dry speed is a key factor but not the only factor, and that I believe other manufacturers have set their design decision-making with a different set of priorities.

You make a good point about colour-coded interaction points - and the consistent application of those colours across the vacuum product range is good as well. I intend to update the article with some feedback and I'll be sure to mention that for balance.

Regarding James Dyson and the invention culture: I worked with senior ex-dyson designers some 6 years ago so have some 2nd hand awareness over the IPR culture and JD's oversight of design reviews. I agree that I don't think the public literally think that it's JD himself inventing things (though, he is certainly more involved in design than a typical CEO). Yet the objective of the Dyson branding is surely to ensure that the name James Dyson is firmly in the public consciousness as an inventor extraordinaire. I think that is a conscious choice by Dyson and that it has a sizeable influence on societal perceptions of the design profession.

Cheers!

[lucideng]

As an owner of a Shark, I don't agree. The ergonomics are great, controls/buttons are grey, everything else is red or black, sounds like you just made a poor choice in model and/or colors. Mine is a corded vac and just works. Replaceable, washable filters, switched power, handles egregious amounts of pet hair (Husky) and a lift-away tank. We replaced a cheap Bissel vacuum with the Shark, and the Bissel was great, it was just really hard to clean stairs with it.

I think of a Dyson as more of a status symbol, like the latest Mac Book, a watch collection, or a Porsche. Dyson owners like telling people they have a Dyson. Most people just need things to work well for their use case, be reliable and affordable.

The saying goes... "Fast, reliable or cheap. Pick two."

[buran77]

> has an atrocious UX - a slow on/off button instead of a trigger, and an amazingly useless "smart power" feature that just varies the power almost completely randomly as you vacuum.

Contrast that with the Dyson v15 which has a trigger I have to hold continuously while I twist and turn the vacuum so I can't change the grip without it turning on and off as my finger slips off the trigger or inevitably gets tired. Or the amazingly useless "smart power" feature that just varies the power almost completely randomly as I vacuum an otherwise perfectly smooth hard floor.

Or the peak of uselessness, a display to tell me how many particles of dust it thinks it vacuumed, and their estimated sizes. Because I needed to be told I vacuumed 20 million dust particles of one size but only 1 million of another size. Counted twice just to make sure.

[IshKebab]

> or inevitably gets tired

The triggers are so light, I fail to see how anyone could get tired. It basically requires no more grip than just holding it.

> Or the amazingly useless "smart power" feature that just varies the power almost completely randomly as I vacuum an otherwise perfectly smooth hard floor.

Oh no Dyson did that too? I assumed it was just Shark.

It's clearly a hack so they can lie about amazing pickup and battery life (....but not at the same time)

[detourdog]

My only complaint about the Dyson products is that they compromise on battery tech to help margins. I would expect such a design focused company to use the best batteries despite the effect on margins.

No sense charging top dollar and using less than state of the art batteries.

[IshKebab]

Tbh I don't remember that being mentioned at all. Even if true a huge bonus of buying Dyson is you can get cheap third party batteries easily.

[detourdog]

I would say that the battery tech could be about 10 years old which would line up with your tenure.

[m463]

> has an atrocious UX - a slow on/off button instead of a trigger

sort of like the humdinger, which I think I wasted my money on trying to replace a dc34