Come Together: ID and IxD Collaboration

Last week at our Seattle studio, frog hosted the IDSA and IxDA  event “Whole Product Design”  where industrial designers and user interaction designers came together to explain the approach and collaborative process behind the products they designed. The event exposed the holistic design process (from form to function), and gave local designers the opportunity to show and talk about their work, as well as connect with other designers in the two disciplines.

To explain the challenges of how multi-disciplinary teams design and develop products, and to shed light on the creative synergy between industrial design and interactive design, frog’s  Senior Mechanical Engineer David Gustafson and Associate Creative Director Scott Nazarin told the story of the frog designed Intel Point of Sale (PoS) concept.

A team of technologists and industrial and interactive designers looked 3-5 years into the future to see what a potential point-of-sale retail terminal might look and feel like. The ID team began by assessing the spaces, relationships, and experiences of shoppers and clerks in retail environments, and conceptualized a variety of archetypal arrangements and different aesthetic designs. 

The selected design featured three large, rich-media touch displays, arranged both vertically and horizontally to create a wall-and-tabletop “workspace” to be used by both the customer and the clerk. Interaction designers also created a digital interface for the hardware. They paid special attention to the feel of the interface’s motion, appropriate sizing and contrast of angles. This enabled the system to deliver real-world levels of service previously possible only online.

Meanwhile, the product designers talked about how they shaped the industrial design to make the UI the “hero,” choosing angles and dimensions so that the physical elements seem like an illusion and make the UI a floating, weightless experience. The result was a working concept that seamlessly integrates compelling and meaningful industrial design with attractive and usable interaction design for a richer and more satisfying experience for the shopper.