Design Simplicity

The best design is simple, complete and intuitive.

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February 25, 2007
The Goods
A Slice of Simplicity
By BRENDAN I. KOERNER

A CONSUMER’S willingness to master a gadget tends to vary in direct proportion to the gadget’s technological sophistication. No one minds spending several minutes fiddling with a new smart phone or digital camera. But if something as straightforward as a pocketknife baffles within the first 30 seconds, the tendency is to become frustrated and give up.

Minimizing the odds of user befuddlement is thus a top priority for Buck Knives of Post Falls, Idaho. You can never take for granted that consumers will know how to operate our products, said Paul Chiba, a product manager at the company.

So in designing the Buck/Whittaker X-Tract, which features pliers, screwdrivers and a bottle opener in addition to a blade, the company focused on making the product’s operation as intuitive as possible for pocketknife neophytes.

The X-Tract is Buck Knives’ second attempt at making a so-called multi-tool, a product category dominated by Victorinox of Switzerland, owner of the Swiss Army brand, and the Leatherman Tool Group of Portland, Ore. An earlier attempt, called the BuckTool and introduced in 1996, resembled a traditional Leatherman — a double-handled tool that swings open like a fan, with pliers at the top and an array of blades sprouting from the interior grips.

Despite the reputation of the Buck brand, which is virtually synonymous with both fold-out hunting and fixed-blade combat knives, sales of the BuckTool were disappointing. The product’s relatively high price was cited as a factor, as was the fact that some consumers found the BuckTool a little too tricky to open and close.

Buck Knives decided to take another crack at a multi-tool about 18 months ago, after moving its headquarters to Post Falls from El Cajon, Calif., in order to take advantage of Idaho’s cheaper labor costs. This time, the product’s design was more like that of the sleek Swiss Army knife, with various widgets either folding or sliding out of a single, somewhat oblong handle. For simplicity’s sake, the new multi-tool would have fewer widgets than the BuckTool — the designers reduced the number of screwdrivers to two from five, and dropped a second, fully serrated blade.

Throughout the design process, Buck Knives sent mock-ups to Peter Whittaker, an accomplished mountaineer who collaborates with the company on several products. Among Mr. Whittaker’s suggestions was to trim down the X-Tract’s thickness and to make the handle’s sides out of plastic rather than aluminum, so that they wouldn’t stick to flesh in subzero temperatures.

After creating three working prototypes, an industrial designer, Mark McLean, spent weeks tweaking the handle’s contours, so that all the components could be opened with one hand, and the blade’s lock would be easy to deactivate.

There was also an aesthetic aspect to Mr. McLean’s tinkering. I thought, ‘How am I going to give this a sculpted look?’ he said. Among his innovations is a swooping curve toward the X-Tract’s front, which doubles as both a thumb rest and a dash of visual flair.

The X-Tract went on sale last summer at retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI and other national chains. Mr. Chiba declined to disclose how many X-Tracts have been sold so far, but Buck Knives estimated that the company’s overall 2006 sales were more than $44 million, up from $33 million in 2004, its last year in California.

With a suggested price of $50, the X-Tract is on the lower-cost end of Buck Knives’ product line; limited-edition knives, like the Yellowhorse Night Hunter, can cost up to $700.

Not coincidentally, the X-Tract is among the Buck Knives products made in China, where the company opened a factory in 2000. For an established business looking to stay competitive, that move was as intuitive as Mr. McLean’s knife design.