Beyond Design

Ethnography

Market
Research

An understanding of the current market landscape and white-space helps to define hypotheses and opportunity areas for the project approach.

Stakeholder Interviews

Many stakeholders outside of end users influence the design needs of our clients. We study how the project affects all aspects of the business in order to define a successful solution.

User
Validation

Design is a cyclical process. We use both quantitative and qualitative research methods to validate how people respond to particular ideas. Our development team processes user feedback to help refine concept value propositions and potential feature articulation.

Ideation

Our Strategic Design Process (SDP) allows us to aggregate potential solutions to our client’s needs from a user-based framework. Concepts are introduced and tested quickly in order to arrive at viable solutions in which to refine.

Surface Development

We use SolidWorks and Pro/ENGINEER to fully control our designs and deliver the data necessary for engineering and manufacturing. CAD helps shorten the development schedule, while providing greater accuracy and immediate visual feedback to further enhance structural, mechanical and aesthetic details.

Visual Brand Language

We define and apply brand characteristics into products and experiences, ensuring all touch points of our designed experiences are correctly detailed and communicated. Our goal is to create a design language that provides point of differentiation and value for our client.

Form
Exploration

The calculated combination of robust functionality with emotional appeal is the converging focus of form development. We create compelling designs that provide lasting impressions.

Need
Finding

By focusing our study on the user, we are able to identify the problem and provide a thorough analysis to give our clients an understanding of the extent of their programs, and help them make decisions and identify potential opportunities.

Wireframing

Wireframes show our client the structure and navigation of an interface before the specific details have been fully developed. Through usability tests, we uncover obstacles early in the planning stages in order to create a successful design solution.

Usability
Testing

Prototyping is a vital tool for validating our interface design and refining it as necessary. Real-time questions are asked and prototypes are adjusted on the spot. This is an iterative process to gather insights into how the user perceives the interaction.

Design
Documentation

We provide our clients with a framework for developing their product, including workflow diagrams and graphic design files. Our documentation captures the major system design and communicates design intent.

Engineering
Design

Our team is skilled in mechanical part design for manufacturing (DFM) in CAD (SolidWorks & Pro/ENGINEER) and engineering assembly accommodation. We develop part strategies and review material options and methods for manufacturing to assure quality standards and price targets are met.

Computational Analysis

We offer Computational Fluid Dynamic studies (CFD) to test, measure, and provide the optimal fluid, gas, and thermal transfer, as well as critical FEA verification.

Rapid
Prototyping

Our in-house 3D printing allows for quick onsite design verification, as well as feature validation right up to tooling production. We also manage prototypes that require CNC cutting in specific materials, vacuum forming, plaster metal casting, urethane casting, and prototype tooling.

Production Documentation

We provide manufacturing specification drawing packages, part data delivery, communication, and support for our clients as their product moves into production tooling.