Convenient - Carus Concept

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Hello here is my entry, I hope you enjoy it.
Please read my (slightly massive) presentation below to fully understand my Concept, Design Philosophy and future thoughts for Carus around this type of Product.

Before I started with any aesthetic design, I put a lot of time and effort into comprehending and understanding the actual User Experience of this type of product. Most of the time spent has actually been used to answer key questions such as; How do the customer want to use it and what kind of features would actually be beneficial in daily use? My results were then finally implemented in a design appearance in which I strived for simplicity and few number of parts to achieve an elegant and uncluttered design. Of course based on key design elements of Carus to fit their current product line. Other aspects were also taken into consideration, such as manufacturing processes, assembly, cost and marketability etc. So, the main features are:

Hand Gesture Controlled Lightning
This product will most often be used in a room that will be turned dark at night, and the Phone and Watch will often be needed to be located in such situation. By simply waving with the hand/arm anywhere above the Docking Station, a soft light will appear around the iPhone and Apple Watch, making it really easy and convenient for the user to find them in dark environments. A unique solution that adds value for the customer. The time period the light shines could be limited to for example 10-60 seconds, which will save energy. The technology behind it is any proper kind of sensor (such as Passive/Pyroelectric InfraRed motion detector, or like the iPhone´s Proximity Sensor etc) that can identify any movement in dark environments. The Light Solution around the units is simple LED shining through frosted plastic panels to give a soft dimmed light appearance.


Adjustable Connector Panel for iPhone
The position of the Lightning Connector is tiltable/adjustable, to automatically fit different thicknesses of phones and because users often use additional Shell Covers to protect the phone from scratches, which makes the phone larger in thickness, which need to be taken in consideration. The user should NOT need to unmount the shell cover to be able to fit the phone into the charging station every night. That would be waste of time and not user friendly at all, so this solution solves that issue.

Other good Design Aspects to notice:
+No visible fasteners, integrated Magnet Solution for covers on the back and underneath.
+Works for BOTH open and closed wristbands for Apple Watch.
+Apple Watch charged in Upright Position NOT lying on the side, for Easy Reading of display.
+Protecting Plates in plastic around iPhone and Watch to protect surfaces to scratch against metal.
+Rubber feet underneath to achieve Good Grip against any table surface.
+Rubber Stripe Support to protect the back of iPhone.
+Compact Design, not bulky as in requiring much space.
+Mainly Flat Surfaces (to enable brushing finishing process)
+Only Machined Parts.
+Easy Assembly in production.
+Design adaptable for iPhone Docking station only, (subtracting the side extension for the Watch).
+Changeable Connector Panel for iPhone.

By having the Lightning Connector in a separate panel, the panel can easily be switched out, for adapting to future Carus Products for phones with other charging connectors. I guess the next release of iPhone 7 will have the new USB-C Standard (also known as USB 3.1), which Apple implemented in their latest release of the new Apple MacBook 2015, and that probably all Smart Phones will have in the coming years. If the adjustable panel is designed for easy plug and play, customers would be able to UPGRADE their docking station, when they have got a new phone that is not compatible anymore. Just ordering a new adjustable panel, then switching at home and they are ready to go again! This is indeed a really good selling point, which also get customers to stick with Carus Products. I strongly believe that forward planning is crucial in a constantly changing world. It also reduce future investments in time and money for development for Carus.

The complete plate is extruded in aluminium, but could be made as two separated flat plates, which may be easier to machine. As two plates it could be welded together and sandblasted to still appear as a single piece without any visible joint edges, which creates a very sleek design, a matter of taste.

The color of the light is yellow or white, but if possible it would be a nice feature to make the light shine in color green/orange/red depending of how much the batteries of the phone and watch that have charged, to let the user to immediately know the current status. I do not have enough knowledge within the field of electrical systems to be sure that such feature would be able to implement though.

So summarized;
There is a lot of functionality and design features built in to primarily make the Docking station intuitive and user friendly, and it is simply shaped together in an unpretentious and seamless unibody. Being able to easily find the Phone and Watch in the dark with a simple hand gesture and having a Connector Panel that automatically adjust to the size of phone, even with or without shell case, makes this Docking Station very convenient for the user. Therefore the concept was named Convenient, just to highlight that the main focus have been the User Experience and not just only Aesthetic Design Appearance. The design is also prepared for future upgrades and variations which is also Convenient for both customers and the company.

Thank you for this Design Challenge, I found it very fun and quite challenging to figure out the features and achieve the final design. Cheers everyone!

Best Regards

Josef Snabb

Original CAD-models from Grabcad that are used in assembly, to be credited:
https://grabcad.com/library/circuit-board-pcb-mock-example
https://grabcad.com/library/apple-lightning-connector-1
https://grabcad.com/library/usb-series-a-receptacle
https://grabcad.com/library/iphone-5-41
https://grabcad.com/library/iphone-6-plus-9
https://grabcad.com/library/apple-watch-charger-1