ENCLOSURE DESIGN: BLENDING VISUAL APPEAL AND FUNCTION
Our mechanical engineering staff is responsible for the functional design of the product as well as the enclosure, or “skin” of the device. The enclosure is the physical interface between the product and the user and has a primary impact on the user experience.
The enclosure must enable all of the physical interactions necessary to operate the device, as well play a part in communicating the brand message that the industrial designers and marketing team intend. NOVO’s mechanical engineers must faithfully translate the ID sketches and surface models they receive from the industrial design partner into CAD models. Additional features are then added to provide functionality unrelated to the ID. The design must ensure that the enclosure component is manufacturable at an acceptable cost.
All of the elements of the design, including the UI display, color, texture, and audible and tactile feedback must be implemented in a way that preserves the design intent. NOVO’s MEs will establish a constructive collaboration with the ID partner knowing that the success of the product depends on the quality of contributions from both disciplines.
Our MEs and manufacturing engineers will identify the most appropriate manufacturing process to meet the objectives of the program. They are skilled in all of the common prototyping and production processes for low-, medium-, and high-volume manufacturing.
Another vendor provided the user experience and industrial design for the project examples shown on this page, which NOVO translated into the enclosure design specifications and programming for the graphical user interface.