4moms® adapters
In order to support our stroller and car seat business, it was decided to pursue the development of 11 separate adapters. Early on, the team established an over-arching design philosophy to inform the adapters' development. The pervasive design philosophy in each adapter was crafting a sophisticated and tailored look, yet remaining complimentary to the parent stroller and car seat. This thinking was the foundation of a cohesive family of 4moms® adapters.
Functionally, the adapters needed to feel safe and secure, giving the parents the crucial confidence of use. They didn't need to feel magical, but they did need to be intuitive and elegant.
Development Timeline
The team developed 9 separate adapters in 10 months (two of the originally planned adapters were later cancelled). The icons in the center of the graphic represent products currently in development at 4moms® - the Moxi®, the Self Installing Car Seat, and the Origami Go®, respectively. Through marketing research, the team found the optimal competitive set to develop compatability for. Those competitors are shown above.
The team developed 9 separate adapters in 10 months (two of the originally planned adapters were later cancelled). The icons in the center of the graphic represent products currently in development at 4moms® - the Moxi®, the Self Installing Car Seat, and the Origami Go®, respectively. Through marketing research, the team found the optimal competitive set to develop compatability for. Those competitors are shown above.
Our Process
With a small development team and a tight timeline, the team made collaboration the core tennent, each discipline working closely with one another. The project itself was highly technical, requiring competitor benchmarking and backwards engineering, then quickly iterating on concepts through rapid prototyping, testing, and then retesting.
Industrial design and marketing would first establish a high level user experience standard, with industrial design then establishing the ideal form and space claim. In parallel, engineering and design worked together to ideate adapter concepts, prototype, and test those prototypes. Each discipline supported the other's goals to produce adapters that we considered awesome enough.
Ideation and Prototyping
Ideation phases were fast paced, often only having a week or two weeks to develop the ideal form. Once the team felt good about a form direction, a Solidworks model was executed, printed and tested. Multiple iterations helped to refine the concept until it was awesome enough.
Testing and Validation
Due to stringent engineering and compliance standards, each adapter had to undergo comprehensive testing in order to validate its design. In addition, user testing was leveraged to identify key interaction points and refine the user experience.
Manufacturing Efficiencies
The development team identified opportunities to implement design efficiencies for production. One of these efficiencies was to utilizing a base set of common parts when designing each of the 4moms® Self Installing Car Seat adapters. These common parts helped minimize assembly complexity and reduced capital expenditure on tooling costs.
Great Job Team!
Nine adapters in 10 months is a big deal! These were 9 individual products, each with their own complexities and design challenges to overcome.
