I got an iPod nano last weekend. I saved the black box it came in.

I’ve been talking up the book, A WHOLE NEW MIND for the last nine months and this weekend, I experienced fully what it means to buy a product from a company that gets Design.

I was fascinated and delighted by the packaging. Oh, yes, the nano is beautiful. But the packaging is what struck me.  A perfectly square box that is a paper slipcover for another box inside that unfolds to show the nano displayed like a museum artifact, in a pristine white casing. Inside a compartment opposite the nano, there are white pouches, indented at the top to show the user where to rip it open. Inside the white pouches are the famous white ear buds and a USB cable. Cords are folded neatly together into rectangles and then instead of twist ties to hold the shape, they are fitted into clear cellophane loops.  I ask you, what could be more elegant? 

Design is not just form. It’s function. Compare this to my experience of opening up my son’s new Texas Instruments graphing calculator, with the hard plastic shell that requires brute force, a sharp pair of scissors and maybe a few cuts and scrapes on my fingers. Ahhhhh, my nano beckons with a slide of smooth black cardboard. 

Well, now I’m waxing poetic.  I suppose that’s what good design can do.  I’m ready to buy a Mac.