The two most important lessons I’ve learned about hardware design come from my experiences at Walt Disney Imagineering R&D and iRobot.
All of the Disney experiences center around a simple story. Everything in the product (e.g. a movie) is focused on telling this story to the guest. The same storytelling approach is now becoming true for consumer hardware products. To be successful, products must tell a simple story to the consumer. Their “voice” is expressed through design.
Hardware startups need to take the same approach. In telling the product story, they need to carve away the bulleted list of 20 features to find the core three features that tell a clean, simple and compelling story through the industrial design and user experience. When done well, the result is a product that speaks visually to consumers and makes them crave interaction with it.
The lesson from iRobot is that great industrial design is closely coupled with the product’s function. You can’t silo any parts of the development process. The Roomba is a great example of htat. The key to our success was that the design of Roomba was so tightly coupled with its function. For the Roomba to complete its cleaning mission, it was critical that it never became trapped. This requirement dictated a design based around a round robot with the wheels on the diameter. The clearance under a typical couch dictated the robot’s height. Using these functional requirements, the engineering and design teams were constantly iterating to create a functional product that looks good.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: The latest on Raspberry Pi RP2350-E9, Bluetooth 6, 4,000 Stars and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
