Designer gives bland mouse a whole new look

There are those who will live life content to roll a bland beige oval around on their mousepad. Then there are those - fewer in number - who will delight in the sleek silver coffee bean with its glowing orange stripe that is Microsoft's new Philippe Starck-designed mouse.

Likewise, while the vast majority of us will toil away in front of the putty-coloured, boring squares and rectangles that constitute the average desktop computer system, there are those who will opt for neon green laptops with lit-up alien eyes, or circular, white computers with hovering, anglepoise flatscreen monitors.

Or computers that are look like little more than a monitor balanced on a silver stand.

Welcome to the world of high-end computer hardware design.

"Attractive things work better," insists computer design guru Mr Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things and The Invisible Computer.

Admittedly, the comment is a bit tongue in cheek - he expands on the idea in an essay on usability and design. "Good design means that beauty and usability are in balance. An object that is beautiful to the core is no better than one that is only pretty if they both lack usability," he writes.

However, as many hardware manufacturers have found, an object that is beautiful and functional can clearly make a niche market for itself - although sometimes with computer hardware beauty, as with Alienware's neon laptop, is in the eye of a particular beholder.

But that's the whole point of opting for something that doesn't look like what is on everyone's else's desk - people like having others do a double-take.

"That's the real attraction [of the Starck mouse] - to have something different," says Mr Mike Haigh, Microsoft's product marketing manager for the UK and Ireland.

Analysts have put Microsoft's move into designer hardware down as a playful response to the growing attraction to consumers of, well, stuff that looks cool.

Apple's wildly popular and pricy iPod digital music player is seen as the product that threw down the design gauntlet for mass-market electronics. A consumer item that can cost up to €449 yet which flies off the shelves of retailers has proven that consumers are willing to pay for products that look good.

"We conducted some research that showed our customers really wanted to make a statement now with what's happening on their desktop," says Mr Haigh.

Microsoft opted for a designer mouse because "it's something that's easy for people to pick up. It's the right price point for people."

The company approached Mr Starck because they felt the man who is famous for bringing high design to common consumer items such as lemon juicers would be perfect for tackling the lowly mouse. Mr Starck has said he saw the project as forming an artistic bridge to technology.

Small companies such as Alienware (which has its European base in Athlone) have proven they can make a viable business out of niche, high-end, unusually designed products.

But the pattern also can work for mass-market products like Apple's iMac and iPod lines. Long ago, Apple Macs and the Mac operating system lost out to Microsoft Windows-based PCs for the bulk of the computer market, but Apple has found a solid corner of the market for its high-design machines, about 5 per cent globally.

Early on Apple turned the idea of what a computer should look like on its head, with its first Macintosh in 1984, an all-in-one boxy unit. In the 1990s, the see-through coloured plastic casings of the iMac sparked a mass trend for colour and making the insides of electronics visible, while the flatscreen iMac that followed has forced more elegant flatscreen monitors into a main-stream offerings from many manufacturers.

"We've been renowned for being innovative in the industry, and people look to us for that innovation," says Mr Mark Rogers, managing director, Apple UK and Ireland. "There's pressure on us from a very loyal customer base that we keep pushing the barriers."

Apple has also been criticised in some wings for producing computers where design is more important than other considerations, but Mr Rogers denies this is the case.

"A lot of people think it's purely design for design's sake, but a lot of the design is built around functionality and physiognomy."

For example, the latest iMac, launched last week - in which the entire computer is contained in a two-inch wide rectangle behind the monitor - required a rethink of how to position components and to create a DVD drive that would operate vertically.

Technically, the machine would not have been possible at all even two years ago, according to Apple.

British-born Apple chief designer Mr Jonathan Ive works closely with engineers to see "can we realistically deliver from an engineering standpoint around those designs", according to Mr Rogers.

High-level design is not just an aesthetic practice, says Mr Rogers, but a hard-nosed business decision in the increasingly commoditised PC sector.

People either want cheap and cheerful PCs from the low-margin, high-volume PC makers, or higher-margin products with an edge in design and functionality from Apple and a handful of boutique firms such as Alienware, Voodoo and Falcon Northwest Computers.

"When competing in this type of market, the reality is, that's the only place there's any money," he says. "It's us and [mass market manufacturers like\] Dell."

However, Microsoft believes it has found a nice little corner in the high-design market with its mouse.

"It's been well-received in the US. We've seen that there is a niche for this product. It's not something that will become mainstream - but that's the point," says Mr Haigh.

The bottom line for high design, however, is whether the product gets used.

As Mr Norman has written: "Marketing considerations must be accounted for, aesthetic appeal, manufacturability - all are important.

"The products must be affordable, functional, and pleasurable. And above all a pleasure to own, a pleasure to use."