During my time at Design Design Inc., we worked on several products for TA Instruments. I’m really proud of our redesign of the Discovery Hybrid Rheometer. We initially spent time with TA and their existing device to understand how it worked and the particular design constraints. Starting with sketches we offered concepts that offered surface development options as well as manufacturing strategy. There was already a well established brand look so we took cues from other pieces of equipment to inform certain motifs. We revised the concepts until we were confident we had good direction and started translating into CAD. This model had some really tricky parts especially when it came to the head unit since we had to keep the same general airflow pathway which made the head unit an incredibly complex part.
Near the final conceptual phases, we were still looking at developing a screen and no-screen options.
A close up of the control interface. I remember sketching up tons of these surfaces to get the right fit for our controls.
We tried to get them to move their venting to the underside but there was some concern around the air that would be sucked in from that position so we had to incorporate this air scoop to help achieve the air flow pathway they needed.