Amplifier casing design

Which design do you like the most?

  • Design 1 (top left)

    Votes: 13 36.1%
  • Design 2 (top right)

    Votes: 7 19.4%
  • Design 3 (bottom left)

    Votes: 3 8.3%
  • Design 4 (bottom right)

    Votes: 13 36.1%

  • Total voters
    36
Status
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Hi everyone,

For my study Industrial Design Engineering I am doing my bachelor assignment at a company that develops several electronical parts for amplifiers. They sell these electronics to different companies that actually develops amplifiers. To show potential clients the quality of these components they have also made a demo-amplifier. At this moment it is just a PCB with plugs for the input and output. Now it is my job to design a casing so it looks like an actual amplifier.

At this moment I have made several concepts which all have interesting looks. Now I have to select a final concept that I will further develop. To select the final concept I ask input from the company. But it is also interesting to know what the end-user (you) will think, because if the amplifier would be in the stores the end-user has to buy it. So I attached my 4 concepts and I would like to hear your opinion. Which amplifier is your favorite (and why?). Note that these concepts are only the basic shape with some details. I did not focus on the user interface yet since that is a design on its own.

I hope you could give me some good input, also feel free to give suggestions, this can always give new insights.

Thank you in advance!
 

Attachments

  • amplifier bremfighter.jpg
    amplifier bremfighter.jpg
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Hi Scottjoplin,

Well as you can see in the attachement of my post (I hope that the photo is visible, because i'm not sure if it uploaded correctly) you can see that the 4 models don't have so many knobs and it is not clear how to for example turn the amplifier on or off or select a different channel. Everything that has to do something with the interaction with the user of the product is called the user interface (the knobs, the screen, etc.)

But every concept that I have drawn can have a wide variety of user interfaces (for example: put the volume button, to the right instead on the left, use a touch screen instead of a physical knob) So I don't want to distract people when looking at the drawing. I only want to specify now on the overall shape of the amplifier. Once I have chosen a final concept I will focus on the user interface; what knobs will I use, where will I put them etc.

Did I answer your question?
 
Yes, that's what I was thinking, how the other controls will affect the overall appearance

Yes you're right the overall controls will indeed change the appearance and it might be difficult to give a opinion that is not biased on the controls. However it can be very time consuming to make multiple interfaces for every concept. So first I want to find the overall shape, I hope the (lack of) controls that are on the concepts now are not to distracting?
 
... Which amplifier is your favorite (and why?). Note that these concepts are only the basic shape with some details. I did not focus on the user interface yet...

I believe in 'form follows function'
Work out the user interface you need, then the shape will follow as the best way to implement that user interface, and the other requirements like heat dissipation.
I have a Harmon Kardon amplifier that was "styled" first then the user interface had to fit the supposedly "stylish" front.
It's terrible to use, for instance inconvenient to read the tiny print on controls - apparently easy to read labels weren't "stylish", and other similar poor user interface problems.
I selected it based on the electronics but the usability is so poor I consider it one of the worst products I have owned.
Please don't make more products like this, there's already too many.
Read Victor Papanek!

Best wishes
David
 
Last edited:
Dave Zan said:
I believe in 'form follows function'
Yes. The layout of controls will be determined partly by the circuit and partly by ergonomics, and that then leads on to any cosmetic features. For example, the volume and source selector knobs are often larger than other controls. Starting with cosmetics is starting from the wrong end of the problem.

Most of us no longer buy amplifiers, so we are not necessarily the best people to ask.
 
Yes. The layout of controls will be determined partly by the circuit and partly by ergonomics, and that then leads on to any cosmetic features. For example, the volume and source selector knobs are often larger than other controls. Starting with cosmetics is starting from the wrong end of the problem.

Most of us no longer buy amplifiers, so we are not necessarily the best people to ask.

Yes you're right, you should always start out with the internal functios and to solve the requirements that you set when designing a product. However, the pcb is already made and a list of requirements (for example the different types of input and the controls) are already written down. But the overall shape did not have any influence on my requirements so the shape is (almost) completely free. That's why I only showed the overall shape. No matter which one I choose, the requirement will get into the product
 
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