So much of designing consumer electronics comes from an in-depth understanding of internal architecture. My goal here was to link the needs of the user as well as intended software interactions with the physical aspects of the device. The thickest components of the system are located at the top: The IO ports, CPU and thermal package as well as the taller components on the main board are all carefully selected and engineered to create a functional sort of thickness. The result is a form that is as useful as it is visually compelling.
The focus of Maya rests on consuming digital content - primarily reading text in the form of e-books and subscription content. For this reason a vertical bias was created. The 10.4" screen with a 10:9 aspect ratio provides a great canvas for reading books, but also a natural widescreen format for watching videos.
Maya is thin and light enough to be held in the hands comfortably, but (unlike most existing tablets), it is designed with the table in mind as well. The natural angles of the back surfaces presents the screen at a slight angle off the table - and this makes a big difference in usability.
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Maya
Designed in 2009 for a leading subscription-based content provider, Maya is the intersection between web content, digital publication and Intel Atom architecture. The movement from static content (ebooks) to fluid and interactive content (videos and interactive magazines) was the focus here.
