Good design makes a product useful. It is one of Dieter Rams’ ten principles, and when we see designers of today adopt his ideals in tandem with innovative technology, it can result in better design, which is especially important when we consider how often we see and experience products that are in fact, useless. Such products are not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product while disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

Enter renowned Japanese designer Oki Sato and his studio Nendo. They have designed Denqul—an emergency mobile battery. It has been designed specifically for disaster-use, and can be charged via a manual hand generator built directly into the device. The designers wanted to create a device that could be used both at home and grabbed in case of an emergency, rather than to be
carried all the time. Denqul also comes with a container that allows for storage of basic everyday items such as glasses and stationary. Nendo tells us:

For power generation under blackout situation, solar panel, and hand cranking were considered as options, but the final design deployed new method that efficiently generates power with only one hand. The stick can be pulled out to double its size and bend to L shape, which can be easily swung with one hand to generate power with centrifugal force.