Gallery: The Most Cleverly Designed Objects of 2015
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__[Google Cardboard 2.0](https://www.wired.com/2015/06/inside-story-googles-unlikely-leap-cardboard-vr/)__You only need a few things to experience VR: A high-resolution screen, sensors, lenses, and housing. Your phone provides the first two things. Google Cardboard provides everything else---and it does it on the cheap, in a flat-packable form factor. At Google I/O 2015, the company unveiled an updated design that accommodated a wider range of phones, making Cardboard economical and egalitarian. No wonder the New York Times was able to ship it to 1.3-million people last month.
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__[Tritensel](https://www.wired.com/2015/08/tritensil-spork/)__ Yes this is a “sporf.” Go ahead and roll your eyes, but this updated take on the cafeteria staple is a true design object thanks to a handful of carefully considered choices. MAP projects designed the plastic utensil to be asymmetrical with the head bend at around 40 degrees. This allow people to use their index finger to stabilize the Tritensil as they’re cutting and protect their digits from the serrated edge. We’ll never look at a spork the same way again.
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__[Surface Book](https://www.wired.com/2015/10/story-behind-surface-books-crazy-new-hinge/)__ It’s been ages since anyone considered buying a non-Apple laptop. Microsoft’s Surface Book changed that, quick. Credit the hinge: the isopod-like piece of aluminum flexes back and forth thanks to four rotational points, allowing the Surface Book to easily, and steadily, convert back and forth both laptop and tablet mode.
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__[Polaroid Snap](https://www.wired.com/2015/09/polaroid-ammunition-camera/)__ Unlike its predecessors, this Polaroid doesn’t use ink cartridges. Instead, it uses inkless printing tech developed by a company called Zink. That means that also, unlike other instant cameras, this one is small enough to fit in your pocket, just like your phone.
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__[Espresso Space Cup](https://www.wired.com/2015/01/coffee-cup-designed-let-astronauts-sip-espresso-space/)__It takes a lot of science to design an espresso cup for outer space. Researchers from Portland State University designed every curve to encourage the controlled movement of liquid. The corner of the cup, for instance, uses capillary action to guide liquid towards your mouth. It might not look very pretty, but it’s arguably the smartest cup we’ve seen.
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__[Aiaiai’s TMA-2 Headphones](https://www.wired.com/2015/04/aiaiai-modular-headphones/)__ With its TMA-2 headphones, Aiaiai took the matte-finish minimalism of the TMA-1s and made it modular, allowing you to design your ideal pair of headphones from a range of beautifully crafted parts. Log onto the company’s website, and you can choose from 18 different components---including ear pads, headbands, and speaker units---and combine them to create one of 360 possible permutations.
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__[Leatherman Tread](https://www.wired.com/2015/02/leatherman-made-amazing-multi-tool-wear-wrist/)__Leatherman’s wearable multi tool might be better in theory than in practice. It’s heavy and a little clunky, but the idea behind it is so damn clever we had to include it. Leatherman turned its catalog of multi tools into bracelet links that, when articulated like a tread, become a handle for your selected tool. It just goes to show how low-tech a wearable can really be.
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__[Pebble Time](https://www.wired.com/2015/03/new-pebble-steel-focused-vision-smartwatches/)__ Yes, the Apple Watch went on sale this year, and no, this isn’t it. Pebble’s been at the smartwatch game for a while, and with the Pebble Time introduced its Big Idea for watch user interfaces: that for all their potential, smartwatches should be designed around time. Rather than build an interface around apps (as Apple did), the Pebble team created a UI that revolves around a timeline. It’s controlled via three new buttons on the right side of the bezel: one to view the recent past, one to see the present, and one to scroll forward, to preview what’s next.
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Kelli Anderson’s masterful __[This Book is a Camera](https://www.wired.com/2015/12/awesome-pop-up-book-is-also-a-working-camera/)__ masterful is a book that’s a camera that’s also a crash course in optics and the behavior of light. A photo is essentially an imprint of light, but we don’t think about it that way these days: Our phones and digital cameras conceal the relationship between light and the images we see on the screen. Anderson’s book-slash-pinhole camera re-teaches you about the magic of light, in mere minutes.
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The __[Net Zero Table](https://www.wired.com/2015/05/table-sucks-heat-lower-ac-bills/)__ is like an air conditioner in furniture form. When a room heats up to 71 degrees, the phase-changing waxy material that’s sandwiched between corrugated aluminum softens and absorbs the excess heat. When the room cools, it re-releases that heat, warming the room back up without using a lick of electricity.
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__[BeeLine](https://www.wired.com/2015/10/this-compass-is-made-for-geographically-challenged-cyclists/)__ GPS instructions are damn annoying. And worse, they can be dangerous for cyclists who should really keep their eyes on the road. BeeLine is a glanceable navigation device that doesn’t give you directions so much as it points you in the right direction. It’s more like a compass: Plug your final destination into the BeeLine app, which pairs with Google Maps, and an arrow will appear on BeeLine’s screen. Follow the arrow, and choose your own route from A to B.
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__[Campaign](https://www.wired.com/2015/08/campaign-furniture/)__ is a furniture company for the age of on-demand services. Its founders—ex-Apple and ex-Honda design engineers—treat sofa design like car design. The midcentury modern-style pieces are built according to UPS and FedEx size regulations—saving customers from forking over an extra delivery fee—and assemble on site, in just a few minutes.
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Though the__[Yumit plate](https://www.wired.com/2015/09/an-interactive-plate-that-turns-your-kids-meal-into-a-game/)__ is still in development, we have to applaud its inventive approach to getting kids to eat healthy. The interactive plate is connected to a smartphone app that translates food eaten into points kids can use in video games. Eating veggies is about to became a lot more fun for kids.
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__[2016 Olympic Torch](https://www.wired.com/2015/07/brazil-designed-shapeshifting-olympic-torch/)__ The torch designed for the 2016 Olympic games in Rio is an homage to the country in the form of an object. Designed by Brazilian studio Chelles & Hayashi, the torch expands when handed off, revealing five metallic ribbons of color that reflect the country’s natural wonders. It’s not as subtle as 2012’s perforated metal torch, but it is a great example of how an object can reflect a country’s dynamic culture.
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__[Zolt](https://www.wired.com/2015/11/the-tiny-zolt-portable-charger-powers-three-devices-at-once/)__is roughly the size of a roll of quarters (albeit lighter, at just 3.5 ounces) but has plenty of oomph: plug it in, and the 70-watt tube gives you enough power to charge a laptop and two additional devices, simultaneously. Yves Béhar designed the octagonal form so the little triangle-shaped gaps could let air breeze through the device, keeping it from overheating.
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__[Nendo's Minim+Aid kit](https://www.wired.com/2015/11/nendos-minimaid-is-the-fanciest-survival-kit-ever-made/)__ It’s no small feat cramming a survival’s worth of goods into a single tube, but Nendo made it happen, packing a whistle, radio, poncho, lantern, and pouch of water into a slick metal tube that can be slung over your shoulder in case of an emergency. In the process, the Japanese design studio made what we consider to be the sleekest and fanciest survival kit known to man.
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__[Keen Home](https://www.wired.com/2015/01/brilliant-air-vents-never-knew-needed/)__ Smart air vents sound like yet like another gee-whiz Internet of Things device, but Keen Home makes a compelling point with its Smart Vent: Keen builds profiles for different rooms in the home and studies user habits, to intelligently open and close vents. Initial studies show this cuts down the run time on air vents by an average of 22%. In this way, Keen helps execute on the promises set forth by companies like Nest.
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__[Windows 3.0 Solitaire Cards, Designed by Susan Kare](http://www.areaware.com/collections/fall-preview/products/solitaire-cards?variant=2914556676)__ If you’ve clicked an icon in the last 30 years, you’re familiar with Susan Kare’s work. She’s probably most famous for creating the original fonts and icons for the Macintosh, but among her lesser-known contributions to digital design was the Solitaire deck that first shipped with Windows 3.0 in 1990. Now, Kare has teamed up with Areaware to bring the simulation full-circle, with a 52-card deck of physical cards modeled after her original bitmap designs.
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__[Oru Coast Kayak](http://www.orukayak.com/collections/kayaks)__ When Oru, the origami-like foldable kayak, first launched in 2012 it gave city-dwellers an incredible value proposition: a fully-functioning kayak that could still fit in an apartment closet. Three years later, founder Anton Willis has made an even bigger Oru, that *still* folds into a portfolio-sized tote. The new Oru Coast is 16 feet long to the original’s 12, making it more fit for multi-day excursions on the water.
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__[Samsung’s Serif TV](https://www.samsung.com/global/seriftv/global/index.html)__ For years, companies have made their TVs thinner, bigger, and curvier, in an effort to set their products apart. Serif---a new flat-screen TV from Samsung conceived by renowned furniture designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec---sets itself apart by being none of these things. It comes in three sizes, but the biggest is just 40 inches. Its silhouette is not slim, but instead resembles a seriffed, uppercase “I,” conveying weight and sturdiness. The result is a uniquely elegant television that belongs, as its creators put it, not “to the world of technology, but the world of furniture and design.”
