You don't notice the best product design from IKEA

A few weeks ago I bought a set of Vidga Glider with hook, the exact same as I did a year ago – or so I thought.

They did the same thing and fit the same Vidga tracks as before, but sometime in the past year or so the design changed. A subtle change but I bet it’s quite a big one for IKEA and it’s manufacturers.

Each pack contains 24 pieces and each piece is about a centimeter wide. That means IKEA needs to manufacture a lot of these small gliders.

The product from late 2020 have eight individual parts including small plastic wheels and metal shafts. In early 2022 the product only have two, the glider and the hook, both in plastic.

For me, the customer, nothing have changed – my curtains still works just as good as before. But for IKEA the product have become a lot simpler to manufacture and therefore cheaper.

That’s what makes it great product design and often something that goes unnoticed in todays digital world.

Making products is complicated and expensive, making them simpler and cheaper without compromising on customer value is something that we all should strive for.