“We’ve been extremely brave in bringing this device out,” Barton added, before picking up a Lumia 800 model and gesturing with it. She spoke frequently about how much she and others in the company admired its form factor and enjoyed the simple pleasure of holding it. “It’s easy to add bells and whistles.” Instead, future iterations of Lumia phones will see it further “refined”, and simplified as much as possible, and go further with the instinctive-use credo, Barton explained.
Time and again Barton returns to the idea that the design will sell the phone, and if people will give the Lumia range a chance, then it will become a success. There is a core truth in that, and the current styling seen in the Lumia 800 and 900 can be traced through devices like the Symbian-powered Nokia N8, but design needs to work hand in hand with the hardware and the ecosystem.
Does this view of design as part of the process have an impact in the real world? How much of an impact does the shape of the phone have in the purchasing decision when compared to the number of apps available, the battery life, or the storage capacity?
The full article is on Forbes, and feel free to continue the discussion below.