Our Process

A “Team Approach” To Industrial Design

The HelixOne Process reflects decades of development, creativity, and evolution working with clients like you. Our adaptive industrial design process begins with a solid foundational core and is custom-configured to each client’s needs. Finally, the process capitalizes on the combined strengths of designers, engineers, prototype specialists, and our extensive development network.

Leveraging brainstorms, team efforts, individual development and design reviews to promote creative thinking and in-depth design solutions, our clients benefit from an extremely flexible process in order to meet their project needs. To better understand the product intent, we begin with your user and how they will experience the newly designed product.

Discover

Our approach for developing groundbreaking products will start in one of two ways. It may be based on a client’s Statement of Work or development brief, or we can help you to define the product vision by using design research to find core, valuable insights and unmet user needs your product will address.

As creative designers, we look at every project with an open mind, and as detailed developers, we understand what it takes to bring your ideas through to production and into the hands of your customers. This is where ideation begins, and where we provide insight and guidance to the creation of your vision.

Research

As a preliminary effort before full product definition occurs, Design Research can help establish initial, ground-level definitions for product vision. This strategic design evaluation provides the necessary insight and understanding to help minimize risk and ensure a successful product launch. This can be conducted in front of, or in conjunction with, Product Definition.

Design Research addresses:

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Evaluate competitive products
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Observational analysis and interviews in the use environment
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Develop use cases
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Conduct in-store visits
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In-depth material review
This additional effort is customized for your specific needs, and can help extract the most suitable solution to any customer challenge.

Define

To start, we clearly identify the challenge our clients are working to solve. We ask questions like:
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How was the problem first identified?
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Is there a legacy product or family that needs to be considered?
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What does the competitive market look like?
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Is there company branding information that needs to be worked with?
We work with our clients to explore a wide variety of potential solutions and begin concept ideation. We explore form, aesthetics, ergonomics, interface, technologies, materials, and processes that satisfy key product requirements.

At this stage, it’s key that we understand the market for the product.

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What types of users are there?
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Who is the competition?
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What problem are they solving with the product?
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What types of interfaces need consideration and development?
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Has any design or user research been conducted that we can leverage?
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Will user feedback and/or field testing be required? At what stage?
Multiple concepts are developed that are modern, feasible, logical, manufacturable and provide you with enough conceptual data to choose a primary design direction for further refinement. This direction can, and often is, a combination of features from different concepts.

Design

The Helix team will apply creativity to resolve design issues and opportunities. Aesthetics, family appearance, branding, color and material options, user interface, ergonomics, assembly and manufacturing strategies are explored to define the optimum product solution.

Engineer

Production-based realities are addressed at this stage to deliver the industrial design vision. Our mechanical engineers combine solid and practical experience in processes, design for assembly and manufacturing and materials with the highest industry-standard CAD tools, to achieve the best product design solutions.

Prototype

Once you’ve selected a primary design direction, we continue to solve industrial design issues while beginning 3D CAD development of physical parts and assemblies. At this stage, your intended design is often communicated through photorealistic renderings and initial prototypes. The prototypes may be simple mockups, or semi-detailed 3D-printed parts to ensure components fit and can be assembled.

Test

Our senior level engineers and designers have an in-depth understanding of the manufacturing process and know how to take your concepts into development. Once the design geometry has been reviewed and approved for the transition to production detailing, we generate functional and appearance prototypes in-house. We can then execute preliminary environmental testing, for those with environmental requirements, to validate designs prior to release for tooling and production.

Document

Documentation provides peace of mind, and you will be confident that your product will be released with complete information for manufacturing. We provide 3D production geometry for all parts used for production. 2D reference files are also developed to show overall and critical dimensions. We fully develop material specifications, bill of materials, product artwork files, and all design-related information required for manufacturing.

Oversee

As your Manufacturing Liaison, our team stays with you throughout the development and production phases of your project. If needed, Helix can utilize an extensive and reliable manufacturing network in the United States and offshore.

We focus on obtaining the highest quality, most cost effective solution for your new product. We will review first article parts to ensure the original design intent is met, parts and components fit and work as designed and materials meet your expectations.

Do You Need Design Guidance For Your Next Project?

Contact us for an assessment today.

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