Heckler Internship
Heckler Design creates beautifully simple, commercial-grade hardware and furniture for design-conscious consumers and businesses.
They are best known for office products and their product line of secure tablet stands & mounts used in the point of sale and ProAV industries.
I had the opportunity to work on various projects at Heckler, collaborating frequently with their design team to bring new products to market.
iPad Wall Mount
iPad Stand Peg Redesign
Packaging Labels
Assembly Jigs
Iconography
Key Takeaways
Brainstorming new ideas lead me to drop the use of binoculars
altogether and to incorporate an integrated camera and enjoyable mobile app.
Researching online reviews of competitive products indicated the market
was still lacking a quality birdfeeder with a camera.
Conducting interviews with casual bird feeder owners, bird enthusiasts, and ornithologists led to
several key insights for concept development.
Developing concepts based on user input led to a variety of natural/modern bird feeder options.
Using Solidworks and Keyshot helped me visually portray my design intent.
In this example, an cordless outdoor Ring Camera was used as the camera of choice.
Prototyping out of cardboard allowed me to test the functionality of See Bird.
The seeds flowed easily to the perch area.
Thinking holistically lead to the inclusion of various features to improve the overall versatility and use of See Bird.
Creating a business plan further expanded the use of See Bird.
I incorporated a seed delivery service and app to make bird watching easier, educational, and more enjoyable.
Summary
How does this product take risks?
See Bird is a new way to experience bird watching - weaving modern-day technology into the natural world to create a better bird-watching experience.
How is this product unique and future-oriented?
SeeBird showcases how we might blend the future of tech with the traditional past in a unique way. It proves you don’t need to get overly complicated to be effective.
How does this product contribute to the body of knowledge of design?
This design shows the importance of relying upon already existing technology to produce a better experience now. When sufficient technology exists, like outdoor cameras, it’s possible to work with the existing tech instead of trying to recreate it.