Slimmer, lighter devices are the goal for most technology companies, but not Kano. In this interview, the designers behind the pioneering STEM toy company make their case for tech products that can be easily disassembled.
"As technology is getting more advanced, laptops for example, they're getting way slimmer, more portable," Kano lead product designer Bruno Schillinger told Dezeen. "That's great for usability, but new machines are becoming increasingly hard to prise open."
That's because the slim profile of contemporary devices often comes from gluing or screwing components together, making their reuse or recycling nigh on impossible.
"The throwaway culture of electronics is just getting worse," continued Schillinger. "Modularity is becoming a thing of the past. But for us it's a really important design feature." Kano products must always be easy to disassemble
UK-based Kano represents one pushback against that throwaway culture. Each of Kano's kits first asks the user to build the hardware, then teaches them how to code on it, before celebrating the finished product ? be that a game, artwork or piece of music ? through the KanoWorld online community.
Lego-style ease of disassembly is so sacrosanct to the company as a design principle that, if a desirable feature were only achievable by gluing components together, that feature wouldn't make it into production.
Kano's team includes creative director Aaron Hinchion, director of softw...