Nokia’s Axel Meyer, Head of Design, on Nokia N1 (and throwback videos of Axel with N9 and N97)

Axel Meyer is a name and face that should be instantly recognisable for any Nokia fan who has watched Nokia talk about their device designs over the year. It’s great to see him still there at Nokia, now talking about their latest and come back device, the Nokia N1.

Oooh, N1 sounds great right? Nseries 😀

Axel talks about creating a product that feels natural, that doesn’t distract. It has natural interfaces such as the ‘calligraphy’ or scribble to find your apps. You don’t think about the object but the experience. It’s not a produced piece, just an interview so it does feel a bit wooly in parts.

It wasn’t about just designing the body…but the whole product, inside and out, each component.

This is not an ordinary product. It’s really well made.

“It’s up to people to go and enjoy it”.

You might think the last phrase was dismissive but the sentiment was the same in the N9 promo, “I love the N9, but I leave it to you to love it too”.

Essentially the product will speak for itself.

“Tell us about creating the iPad Mini”

Joke. That wasn’t said but it’s obviously something that keeps cropping up.

This is something that supposedly began life at the end of April.

We would most likely see truer to Nokia designs perhaps as Nokia reconfigures itself over time. Please see this post too. From a distance there’s a lot of similarities but Nokia is keen to say this is their own design and it looks and feels even better in person.

N9 with Axel.

“We didn’t look at the competition”

“We removed everything that wasn’t needed”

“it’s about simplicity” << feels like the same principles.

N97

Category: Nokia