Design For Commercial
The best product design isn’t just reserved for consumer products. Innovative new product design and ergonomic product development can establish market dominance for commercial and industrial products as well. Don’t let anyone convince you that users of commercial products don’t care about ergonomics and aesthetics. Good ergonomic design allows these serious users to be more effective in what they do, while also executing this work safely and more comfortably. Aesthetics is fundamental to communicating what your brand stands for, and through the proper use of product form, color, textures, and materials explicitly and intuitively conveys usability. Good commercial product design results in lower operating costs, higher employee satisfaction, and lower injury rates, which in turn deliver measurable returns to employees, business owners, and manufacturers.
To see our industrial product design case studies up-close, click on a specific product to the left.
Jackson Safety,
Smith & Wesson® 44 Magnum® Safety Eyewear
Metaphase and Jackson Safety partnered to create a breakthrough design in the safety eyewear category.
Known as a highly commoditized market saturated with “knock offs”, the eyewear market on the whole was lacking innovation. Customer, distributor, and competitive research conducted revealed that industry professionals wanted eyewear with a comfortable fit, durability, and visual appeal while not sacrificing protection. Metaphase created a new eyewear design for Smith & Wesson that looks cool enough to wear outside of the worksite without sacrificing the essential safety features needed on the job.
A. With a flexible and ergonomic shape, the nose piece easily conforms to various nose shapes and sizes without pinching or digging into the bridge of the nose.
B. The soft-touch temple contours to the head for comfort and is designed with small triangular vents to minimize fogging.
C. A distinctive one-piece lens provides front and side protection while creating a unique and ownable look.
US Navy, F-18D Cock-pit Controls & Displays
Traveling at the speed of sound leaves little time to interpret displays and operate controls while pulling G-forces that create tunnel vision.
You need flawless, perfect ergonomics. The Metaphase team worked with the US Navy and Boeing to develop the state-of-the-art cockpit for the F-18D Super Hornet Attack fighter.
A. Ensuring that digitally displayed information is legible in a quick glance, in a world that ranges from pitch black to sunlight 5 miles above the earth’s surface.
B. The critical decisions that fighter pilots make are based on the information provided by their displays and are made in milliseconds. The correct angle, color, font, glare, and contrast are a few of the critical design factors to address.
C. The pilot’s Visual Personnel Gear may include laser eye protection, night vision devices and solar visors, all of which must be compatible with HUD displays.
Mark Andy, XP 5000 Printing Press
Metaphase’s design of Mark Andy’s XP 5000 printing press introduced a fresh aesthetic to the printing press category while setting new ergonomic standards with intuitive, easy-to-use controls & displays and safety features that protect the operator.
A. Intuitive controls and displays result in fewer operator errors, more efficient runs and fast training of new operators.
B. Each control station operation has been studied meticulously to define optimal operator comfort, excellent machine operation visibility, and easy access for routine maintenance.
KI, Intellect Educational Furniture System
What can you say about a product that goes from a design concept to exceeding aggressive sales plans in the first year?
KI’s new innovative “Intellect” is becoming the classroom seating choice for the 21st century. Schools, colleges, and universities have discovered “Intellect” is a smarter way to promote comfort and learning in the classroom.
A. The backrest design offers high-level support to the lumbar and scapular regions.
B. The seat pan’s cascading front edge allows students to sit longer and be more comfortable by eliminating unwanted pressure on the back of the knee.
C. The desktop “comfort curve” contours to the body.
John Deere, Pilot Control
Metaphase made John Deere equipment easier to use with better cab ergonomics, more intuitive controls, and advanced control interfaces that are easy to learn and operate.
Metaphase’s Ergonomic Pilot Control for John Deere Crawler/Dozer Products has received wide praise from operators on the controls’ intuitiveness, comfort, and ease-of-use.
A. T-grip configuration provides the opportunity for flexible grip architectures and reduces fatigue by allowing the operator to vary muscle groups being used over time.
B. Integrating the crawler speed controls into the steering control enhances safety and efficiency, providing the opportunity for the operator to vary speed without relinquishing control of the crawler.
C. Every contour is there for a reason. In a field where users are typically resistant to change, this radical departure has been a huge hit because it just feels right.
G-Tech, Lottery Terminal
Based on extensive research throughout Europe and the United States, the G-Tech Lottery Terminal design embodies international ergonomic standards.
Through Metaphase’s task and time-motion analyses, the terminal was designed to make lottery ticketing an intuitive, flowing process: A user-friendly touch screen accepts the logical results of an interaction and prints out a ticket.
A. The touch-screen interface is colorful, configurable, multi-lingual and easy to navigate.
B. The access card slot provides store owners with their required security.
C. The angle of the terminal’s interface is adjustable for optimum viewing angle across all heights with a simple touch.
Comco, C2 Printing Press
Metaphase’s design of Comco’s C2 Printing Press sets a new standard for how in-line flexible presses look and operate.
A. Ergonomically designed shields and covers protect the operator from the high speed web feed, while providing clear and defined grips for routine set-up, cleaning and print inspections.
B. Each control was designed to be intuitive and always within easy functional reach of the operator for on-the-fly fine tuning during a print run.
