Trial Pad Swipe
Skills Used: Industrial Design,User Research, Form Development, Visual Branding, 3D Printing, SolidWorks, SketchBook Pro, Photoshop,, Keyshot
I worked as the Industrial Designer of the Trail Pad Swipe tablet. The Trail Pad Swipe tablet is a redesign of the VU50 tablet. It was my responsibility to generate initial 2D design concepts and present them to brand management and sales. Once the team chose the final design, I developed and refined the chosen 2D design direction in SolidWorks to provide to our engineering team to manufacture.
Project Scope
A: Improve Current Tablet
To develop the new Trail Pad Swipe, I referred to customer reviews online to make improvements. The issues with the existing tablet included the ability to grip the unit with dirty hands and the need to use both hands to operate.
B: 1-Handed Navigation
A feature that needed to be included in the new Trail Pad Swipe was the ability to use one hand during operation. This allows the user to keep one hand free to hold other objects.
C: Use Existing PCB Layout
In order to meet cost and the two-week design time line, the existing PCB layout of the VU50 was used as a template to create the new Trail Pad Swipe.
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Product & User Research of VU50 Tablet
01: Ergonomics
The rounded design of the current tablet provided a poor grip if the users hands were wet or dirty.
02: Feature Hierarchy
The existing button layout had a poor visual layout. Users often become confused when navigating.
03: Two-Handed Operation
The current tablet required users to use both hands to navigate. This prevented the user from holding other items while hunting.
From Development
One-Handed Navigation & Improved Grip
The navigation keypad is placed at the top right to allow one-handed operation opposed to two-handed operation on the VU50. To enhance the grip, horizontal and vertical ribs were built into the back of the tablet housing.
Tough Design DNA
An objective of this project was to design a tablet that visually communicated the tablet’s durability and compactness. To achieve this appearance an extruded “exoskeleton” was built around a slim and chamfered tablet body.
Protected Auxiliary Ports
The electronic auxiliary ports were placed at the bottom of the tablet to reduce the chances of water entering.
