A New Design Language
At Life Technologies, I was challenged to head up the ID for a new design language for the entire corporation. The purpose was to create a consistent look and feel across all categories of physical products.
The Viia series of PCR machines was used as an archetype for the new ID language. It started The company on the path to a iconic and cohesive branding, naming and physical look and feel that is still going strong over 10 years later. We hired RKS to do the initial ID and I worked closely with them on the form, fit and finish to make it a production reality.
I oversaw an additional 5 projects in the new design language while at Life Technologies and worked closely with executive leadership to implement them and the governance program to assure adoption cross company.
The Proton™ Semiconductor Sequencer was the second instrument to come out in Life's new ID language. The real challenge was to get to the market first with this technology but not compromise on the form, quality and user features.
I did not personally design the form, but managed the external ID team and scope and did a ton of legwork to make this project a reality. I worked very closely with Lance Hussey and Ravi Sawhney of RKS who did a great job on the form, tying it to the design language format. My innovation on the fascia, branding, naming, fit and finish and handle construction allowed Proton™ to make it to CES in time for the show.
This direction was a result of studies and interviews with existing and potential users. All bottles were hidden behind the front door when not in use. The door handle was enlarged and integrated with the front fascia and easily opened across the entire area by both left hand and right handed users.
The deep blue color choice was taken both from Life's branding system and used as an accent, rather than for large areas. White was chosen for large primary surfaces due to it's ability to be created without relying on paint, thereby rendering it more recyclable.
The new PGM brought very positive press and recognition at a crucial stage in the development of the ID language
Proton™ received Forbes and PC Magazine’s “coolest thing” designation at CES 2012. This instrument also won a Red Dot and IDEA award.
Design and Implementation
The predecessor to Proton (Left) was basically a housing wrapped around the technology with little attention paid to unify the look and feel. Consequently, the look was very fragmented and not fitting for the idea of personalizing the sequencing technology that the name implied.
Color and material choice was arbitrary although some attention was paid to color coding actionable areas.
The touch screen height and angle was optimized for the standing user but was small and far away from a seated user.
The old look for Life Technologies flagship product (viia 7 PGM) is shown to the left. Although this machine had a more advanced industrial design, it was not a design that adopted well to company wide use on all products. There were several reasons for this.
First, the design was based on breaking up the surfaces into vertical columns which were not applicable to many smaller products beginning to appear in the portfolio. These vertical columns were also broken up by increasingly larger displays. We needed a design that would accentuate, not fight with these larger displays. The central focus area, where the richest material emphasis was put, was the center blue area. This area was not central to the usage of the machine and therefore, somewhat wasted. Lastly, all the design emphasis was in the front area leaving the rest to a very boxy implementation. This too, would not translate well into the many increasingly smaller designs that Life Technologies was challenged to build.
The new design for Life Technologies flagship product (viia 7 PGM) solved many issues mentioned above. The central area was large, enabling a very large display to be used without breaking up the design. The central focus area where most of the money was spent, blended well with the display and was able to be either a hole or a continuous surface depending on the type of touch technology used.
The back and front areas were a unified extrusion that completed the form, rather than looking like a front and a back. This approached worked well for both small and large forms and played a large part in the success and adoption to many smaller sized projects underway at the time.