From the mundane to divine, some of the best-designed products of all time

AT&T Model 500 phone is one of the most iconic products of 20th century

A well-designed product equally elevates form and function. It is pleasing to look at, easy to use and solves a common problem.

We reached out to five design professors and posed the following question: What’s the best-designed product of all time, and why?

Their responses vary from cheap, everyday products to newer, more expensive ones. But all share a story of trial, error and ingenuity.

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Cutting the glare

Catherine Anderson, The George Washington University

In the early 1920s, as Danish designer Poul Henningsen observed Copenhagen at night, he lamented the quality of light in people’s homes. He noticed that the