Problem : Body scales are too narrow.
Many people use body scales every day for measuring our weight. They serve a singular purpose of weighing human body. However, there are times when we want to weigh other things.
Many people travel frequently or own large pets, and sometimes want to be able to weigh them. However, because body scales are too narrow, you can’t exactly put them on top. A solution would be to go on the scale yourself while holding your pet or luggage. However, this becomes challenging as soon as their weight increases and can’t be the permanent solution.
There are dedicated scales for weighing pets and luggages. However, like the body scale, these products have limited functionality and are otherwise useless. Because they add to the objects people already own, not many people own them.
User Survey
To test my hypothesis based on my personal experience trying to weigh my pets and luggages, I conducted a short survey online to 56 people who own large dogs.
I found that while most people do weigh their luggage, they don’t own a dedicated luggage scale. This showed that while people have the need to weigh their luggages, they don’t feel the need to invest in a separate scale for that specific purpose.
The result for dogs was even more dramatic. While most dog owners weigh their dogs either indoors or at the veterinarian’s office, very few of them owned a dedicated scale for weighing their dogs. This validated my hypothesis that people don’t own dedicated scales even if they have the need.
Competition Research
I took a look at products already in the market to understand the current status of the industry.
Body scales have a single function and are very similar to each other. High end scales are mostly digital with some of them featuring wireless syncing with cellphones. Mostly, however, products are similar and there is no innovation.
While the concept of a gravity scale for weighing luggages sounds good, the products aren’t ideal for several reasons. Firstly, the usability decreases if the luggage is heavy as these products make you life the bag with one hand to get a reading. Secondly, they are big enough to not fit inside a bag and small enough to misplace around the house. Lastly, they only have a single function of weighing luggages, which people don’t as often.
When it comes to weighing your pets, there really aren’t that many compelling choices. The scales are too wide and have a medical aesthetic. These products definitely don’t feel like they belong in your house.
Insights from Discovery
Strategy : Expansion
Most people already own a body scale. Instead of designing dedicated scales that achieve only one function, I saw the opportunity to make the body scale more useful by integrating these additional functionalities many people have the need for.
The reason body scales can’t weigh pets or luggages is due to their narrow width. If I could figure out how to make the scale expand laterally, people would have a better experience and wouldn’t need to buy a second or a third scale.
Mind Mapping
Before I began to explore with the form, I organized my thoughts into a mind map that I can use to guide the design process. I figured out everything I wanted the concept to achieve from an industrial design and interaction design perspective.
Form Exploration
I began exploring different folding strategies that could achieve lateral expansion. There were several options involving sliders and rails, but I ultimately settled on a concealed parallelogram expansion that allows the center piece to protrude to expose the weight measurement reading.
Having defined the desirable collapsible strategy, I went about to define the secondary aspects of the overall concept.
Concept : Expandable Scale
I picked this direction out of my exploration because it had satisfied everything I had set out to achieve in terms of functionality. The folding geometry allows the product to expand twice its width laterally but also have a seamless surface when collapsed. This would be ideal for an everyday object like a body scale that should not draw too much attention to itself. With the design defined, it was time to execute the vision.
Dimension + Proportion Study
Before I could model the scale in 3 dimensions, I had to determine how large it would be in 2 dimensions. I selected a 12 inch square as the viable dimension based on the measurement of people’s feet and the width of largest luggage bags.
I then moved on to study what the ideal proportion between the screen relative to the box. I chose a 2.5 inch wide LCD because it afforded the maximum area for your feet while maintaining a legible LCD screen width.
Lastly, I tried different corner radii to see which is the most appealing. I chose to go with the corner radius of 0.75 inches for it’s feeling of overall balance between roundness and rigidity.
Computer Aided Design
I constructed the CAD model from Rhinoceros 3D software. The final model is able to collapse into a seamless rounded form.
However, the scale can expand to double it’s width. Furthermore, the center piece protrudes out so the LCD screen is not obstructed.
With the CAD model complete, I moved forward with the product rendering and interface design.
Interface Design
The graphical interface was designed to be clear and simple. The symmetric form enables orientation free interface and user recognition. I made use of colors and typefaces to indicate weight gain or loss.
Branding + Logo
I explored several options for the brand of the expandable scale. I chose Scale Squared because the square aspect links to the 12″ square dimension of the product.
After I chose a suitable name, I designed the overall gesture of the logo based the the geometry of a square and keeping all the strokes the same lengths in the letter ‘a’ and ‘e’. The superscript 2 was designed to be exactly quarter of the size of regular letters to avoid being read as a letter.
I experimented with various kerning values and stroke weight to arrive at the most stable combination. Thanks to Adobe Illustrator, this process was relatively painless.
I narrowed down my options into 4 candidates. Based on their overall balance in proportion, weight and legibility, I selected the top left combination.
While I was satisfied with my choice, I made small tweaks to avoid the superscript 2 to be mistaken with a z and added a marketing tagline.
I gave the second ‘scale’ excessive kerning relative to the first ‘scale’ to represent the lateral expansion of the product.
Delivery
I originally designed Scale Scale for a class project on products for travelers. However, it was when I had the experience of traveling myself during the subsequent vacation that I realized the need for such a product. So I decided to bring the concept to rendition and enter it in that year’s iF Design Award and Red Dot Concept Award competition.
The design language was developed with the jurors of both awards in mind, which are incidentally both German organizations. I’ve also wanted to live up to my personal standards for elegance in form and function by challenging myself to reduce visual clutter as much as possible. In the end, I wasn’t awarded an iF Award for Scale Scale, but I did receive a Red Dot Award instead. It reminded me of peoples subjectivity, especially when it comes to jurors who are themselves designers.
What made this project a unique experience for me was the opportunity to experiment with interface design. I had designed computers and digital devices in the past, but this was the first time I could dabble in graphical interfaces, albeit a simplistic one. I learned a lot from this project and I hope it allows me to take interaction design further using this experience as a base.
Thank you for reading through!
