Record the evolution process of a product from conceptual design to physical landing, from the beginning of addition design to the end of the painful process of continuous subtraction, in fact, most product design is the same, you can praise the collection.

At the beginning, the customer put forward the demand: they want the mechanical keys to increase the panel design, the internal display screen is 4.3 inches, and the wheat straw is designed together with the body. they hope that the appearance is close to the fashionable style of consumer electronics, serving the middle and high-end market, and the cost is not considered in the design for the time being.
Therefore, I proposed a two-stage design of the panel in the conceptual design at the beginning. The contrast between stainless steel and tempered glass silver and black color contrast was selected on the panel material. The metal panel used the process of cutting high-gloss edges and wire drawing, while the tempered glass considered silk screen printing for a circle of silver edges. Red decorative strips are used as embellishments between the upper and lower shells, and the mechanical key status lights are also matched in color, which is eye-catching and strengthens the memory points of consumers. The bottom has a grip position to facilitate taking on the desktop, and the volume key is hidden in the depression to avoid being touched by mistake. The wheat straw has also made silver decorative strips in some parts to unify the design style.
The overall appearance is fashionable and generous, and many considerations have been made in details.

The overall black color matching, the silver edge of the panel and the red decorative color are more eye-catching and prominent, with strong contrast.

Based on the consideration of subsequent sales cost, the product can be equipped with short pole and long pole wheat, which is also the scheme for many manufacturing industries to control the research and development cost of enterprises. One more model is added to a chassis for accessories.

In the process of outputting the effect diagram, I felt that the red decorative strip was too eye-catching. At the same time, the structural design indicated that this position was not easy to do in the future. Therefore, I began to subtract, remove this design point, and output the effect diagram. The overall feeling was also good.

The black effect is also good, and I still feel normal here.

At the beginning of this step, the painting style gradually began to change. After a round of market research, the customer decided to cancel the original mechanical keys and use the panel touch keys. He felt that the previous design was too complicated and canceled the bottom grip position. After making a circle of adjustment, in order to keep some bright spots in the design, I made a circle of decorative lights between the black panel and the metal panel, and finally the effect was adjusted as above.

According to the principle, the above figure should be the optimal scheme combining design and cost, but the customer began to calculate the cost at this time and decided to cancel the metal panel, adopt tempered glass as a whole, and only keep a circle of decorative lights.

Do you think this is the end result? No, the customer did another round of market research (in fact, it was a meeting with several shareholders and sales). He felt that the mechanical key operation was more comfortable. In order to further reduce the cost, he simply did not even need the display screen and finally adjusted it to the above

This is the effect of the long rod

At this moment, as a designer, you may think that this is the end of endless cost reduction and design reduction. Sorry, the customer finally focuses on a cost-performance ratio and decided to make a very simple variant on the basis of the previous one. The toughened glass panel is canceled. The whole panel adopts a metal cover plate, the status light is canceled, and only one mechanical key is reserved. And the microphone rod is not going to reopen the mold, choosing to match their own wheat rod before, but since they could only emit blue light before, I finally adjusted the key light.

The final plan has a long pole selling effect that can be seen and sold. It is economical and affordable. It focuses on a cost-effective minimalist design. At this point, in fact, I had great hopes for this project at the beginning. From the beginning, the design positioning and conceptual framework of the scheme were relatively complete. However, with the research and development stage, the customer constantly changed his strategy, repeatedly jumped across, and continuously reduced the cost. Finally, he output a scheme that can be said to be undesigned. I think it is a pity. But from another point of view, the customer finally feels satisfied and gets a design plan that can be walked. It is nothing more than worthless. Is it reasonable to exist?