Remains of the Day

It's a complaint of civilisation, and hardly worth voicing with the news of the death toll rising in the Philippines, but it's next to impossible to avoid breaking one's mp3 player's, smart phone's or e-reader's screen these days.

Kobo declined to replace their reader (though I wonder if anyone has ever challenged whether such devices are fit for purpose when their screens appear to be so fragile) and having taken this one apart, it was clearly not designed with easier repair in mind. The battery pack and display were, like with Apple's products, glued to the back-plane.

For our futures to be sustainable, we really must learn to design products for longevity and not for obsolescence; for durability and ease of repair not for improving the corporate revenue streams through engineered-in early replacement.