Although the iPod was released on October 23, 2001, I first encountered the iPod in an electronics store in downtown Chicago during the Christmas holidays of 2001. (1) Despite the simple look of the advice, my first perceptions of the device brought an extreme feeling of intimidation because of my lack of technical skills with Apple’s products and my lack of MP3 knowledge. However, when looking at the device, I couldn’t help the fact that the simple design of the device made me feel that I was looking at one of the most hip designed products that I have ever seen.

What intrigues me most about the iPod device is the simple and concise design of the device. The design of the iPod has not only impenetrable appearance but it also has a fragile physical presence with it’s glass front encasing. On one hand, the impenetrable appearance stems from the metallic mirrored backing that is compressed against the glass encasing of the frontal portion of the iPod. There are no seams, crevices, hooks, or places to wedge into the iPod, and the seamless compression of the glass front and the metallic backing shield the inner workings from the outside world.

On the other hand, the fragile appearance of the iPod stems from the glass-like plastic encasing that entails the front of the device. With the current 2004 iPod, there are four buttons compressed into the glass-like material of the device. The buttons rest between a LCD screen and a larger button that is surrounded by a circular pathway, and they allow a user to scroll through options with the touch of a finger. They also illuminate from a soft light source within the iPod when a ‘Backlight’ option is selected within the options of the main menu.

A solid exploration of the iPod entails that it’s clean appearance is not solely due to a seamless encasing. A well-organized layout of controls and buttons on the device adds an equal amount to a clean, simple, and sleek appearance. On the current standard 20 Megabyte iPod model, there are only two external plug-ins for the device. A fire-wire port that is located on the bottom of the device and a headphone jack that is located at the top of the unit. The plug-in items are compact, and they can be sealed by the object filling the port, and the lack of knobs allow for a concise and compressed look for the unit.

Another trait that adds to the clean design of the iPod is the white color of the device along with it’s white headphones. From the launch of the iPod in 2001, the white headphones have become icons in the public’s eye from Apple’s advertising campaigns, and a quick glimpse of white wires straying from a user’s ears on the street is a sure-fire sign that the person is droning out to selections from a iPod musical library. However, what makes the white color of a conventional iPod unique is that when it is compressed with the metallic mirrored backing of the device, the device has a clean and stainless appearance that results in a soft impenetrable feeling for the owner. A feeling that allows the owner to feel that the mechanism is fragile, yet protected at the same time.

With the combination of the iPod’s clean color, soft frontal appearance, and sealed packaging, I have the feeling that I am resting a small animal in the palm of my hand. An animal that not only has it’s innards protected from the harsh outside elements of the world, but also an animal that is soft enough to designed to emanate sounds and information to warm the world.

BD

1 Horowitz, Jeremy and Dennis Lloyd, “Internet Expert, A Brief History of the iPod” iPod Lounge. 5 December, 2004 <http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=4280_0_8_0_C>