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The fashion news website, Fashionista.com, published an interview Monday with Isabelle Olsson that contains a few interesting nuggets of information and commentary. Olsson, you likely know, is the lead designer for Google Glass and is someone with a strong background in fashion and design. She talks at length in the interview about how her strengths [...]

The post 3 Key Takeaways From Isabelle Olsson’s Fashionista.com Interview appeared first on Glass Almanac.

          

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The fashion news website, Fashionista.com, published an interview Monday with Isabelle Olsson that contains a few interesting nuggets of information and commentary.

Olsson, you likely know, is the lead designer for Google Glass and is someone with a strong background in fashion and design. She talks at length in the interview about how her strengths mesh with the tech side of Google (and the Glass team, in particular) and the challenge of pushing the tech side of Glass while keeping the design and utility in mind.

The whole interview is worth a read, but here are three excerpts that caught my eye for reasons I’ll explain below.

Glass’ Public Development

Olsson talks about how it takes “years and years” to create a tech product, and most companies do that out of the public’s eye. So if the development of Glass seems slow, it’s partly because Google is doing all of the development out in the open for everyone to see.

It’s easy to forget how long it actually takes to make this, but we show that process to the world. We took this stance that we wanted to design this with the world because it is so new and so innovative. That also exposes the real time it takes to take a product to market. Most [companies] do this behind closed doors for seven to 10 years.

Different Versions of Google Glass?

You probably know that Google has numerous Google Glass patents, many of which show completely different designs for the device. I think when we read about new patents and see the images, we assume that one of these new designs might replace the existing version of Glass.

But in a comment about user feedback and people wanting to customize Glass, Olsson almost sounds like she’s saying there might eventually be several versions/designs of Glass available all at once.

A huge piece of feedback is something that I saw from the beginning, which was the idea of being able to choose your own style. There are some limitations on how many designs we can create, but over the course of time we can release different collections. When we released our titanium collection, people appreciated being able to make it their own. We have a collaboration with Luxottica. We’re building more on that idea of having people make [Glass] their own. They can pick out their favorite sunglasses. They should be able to pick their Google Glass shape.

“Pick their Google Glass shape”…. That sounds like Glass will come in different shapes, doesn’t it?

Long-Term Approach

A couple times during the interview, Olsson makes it clear that Google is taking a long-term approach with Glass. This excerpt comes near the end of the conversation:

Then the challenge is how you create something that lasts over time. You can’t push out a piece of technology every second month — or yearly is even challenging. So how do you create something people want to keep [in the long term]? We’re drawing from things that are great over time. Saint Laurent. A bunch of Swedish designers — I’m prone to like Swedish ones. Jil Sander. Just minimal, simple pieces that last. That also comes down to quality, and that’s something we focus a lot on. We’re testing things and making sure the materials age well over time.

Want to read the full interview? Head over to Fashionista.com.

Photo credit: Max Braun via photopin cc

The post 3 Key Takeaways From Isabelle Olsson’s Fashionista.com Interview appeared first on Glass Almanac.

          

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