Review & Disassembly of the Beats by Dre Pill

WhiteBoard Critique of the "Beats 

by Dre Pill"

Beats by Dre has taken the headphone market by storm.  Celebrities, the Olympic team, and the average Joe on the bus, can be caught wearing a set of their stylish headphones.  However, Beats makes more than just headphones.  The Beats Pill is the extension of the head phone collection that brings the rest of the room in on the music experience.

The Beats Pill is a compact speaker for listening to music and answering calls.  One can connect to the Pill either wirelessly, with Bluetooth, or through the supplied 3.5 mm head phone jack.

A breakdown of all the parts.

The three buttons on the round face are connected to two separate circuit boards that are fastened to a molded part.

The prominent Beats button in the front is backlit, illuminating the "b" icon with four small LEDs mounted to the circuit board.

Because of the rounded shape, it was necessary to extend the power button with a molded cruciform that also holds the spring to reach the tact switch on the circuit board.  There are two 2100mAh lithium batteries that are split across the housing to provide balance and power to the product.  The Pill provides about 6 hours of great sounding music anywhere.  

 

The Micro USB has an additional perpendicular mounted circuit board.  It has LEDs that are channeled through a molded acrylic part; also known as light piping.  This is a clever way to show it is charging by illuminating the USB port when a cable is plugged into it.  

Industrial Design:

The Pill is not the first compact speaker in the world of portable stereos.  There have been many before it that were too small, under powered, or unappealing.  The unique style and shape of the Pill helps separate it from the crowd.  It also includes a quality carrying case for protection and portability that maintains the same design aesthetic of the Pill.  Having four speakers provides quality sound for it's size.  

The pill shape causes many constraints for cost of assembly and parts.  This results in a higher cost for aesthetics, functionality and performance.  The smaller space for the speakers limits the quality of bass.  In order to create bass you need to move lots of air quickly and forcefully.  The Pill would have to be bigger or a different shape to improve the bass quality.  

In WhiteBoard's world of Form Follows Reality™, this is a good example of the need for a unique and relevant shape trumping cost of goods and performance (bass).


Design for Manufacturing:

All in all, it is a clever design for manufacturing in a unique form factor.  The Pill is a good example of strong collaboration between design and engineering.    



WhiteBoard Product Solutions - whiteboardps.com

Toy Fair 2013

WhiteBoard, and WhiteBoard designed products attend Toy Fair 2013

WhiteBoard designers Rick & Eric made their annual trip to Toy Fair in New York to check out what is new in the world of toys and to meet with some important clients.

Slam Man, an interactive boxing device invented and developed by WhiteBoard, anchored the Pure Global Brands booth.

SkaZooms, a new line of collectables developed by WhiteBoard, were a popular attraction at the Jax, Ltd booth.





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JamStik

JamStik Rocks CES

For the past 6 months, WhiteBoard has been collaborating with Zivix, a Minneapolis based company, to develop a functional and sleek device for their patented guitar playing technology. The device connects wirelessly to smart phones, tablets and computers to play digital music with an authentic guitar feel.

A WhiteBoard team was recently in China working with manufacturers to ready the device for production. At the same time, the Zivix team was in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show generating some serious buzz for the new product:

www.cultofmac.com/209683

The trip to China went quite well...until Eric had to eat chicken feet.

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North Star STEM Alliance tour

On November 27th WhiteBoard hosted a group of students affiliated with the North Star STEM Alliance, whose mission is to double the number of underrepresented students receiving bachelor's degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math. The students toured the WhiteBoard facility and were given an overview of WhiteBoard's product development process. The objective was to inspire the students and give them a glimpse of what a career in product development looks like. The students were very engaged and asked many questions during their visit.

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Medical Device Design

WhiteBoard participates in the MD&M show

The WhiteBoard booth featured industrial designer Nicole Parks sketching concepts on the Wakum tablet.

WhiteBoard is a valuable resource for the scientists and engineers who develop new products at medical technology companies. The WhiteBoard team brings many years of experience in end-user research, form factor development, ergonomics, and user interface design in multiple product categories. Plus, our designers know how to make things look really cool. These skills nicely compliment the cutting edge technology that these companies develop into life saving products.

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Product Design Workshop

WhiteBoard inspires students to succeed one sketch at a time.

A team of industrial designers at WhiteBoard recently hosted 14 industrial design students from the University of Wisconsin-Stout for a 3-hour sketching workshop and tour of the WhiteBoard studios and model shop.

The focus of the workshop was to help students develop their skills in visual communication and form development. Matt Goulet led the hands-on workshop through a series of sketching exercises to help increase sketching speed and create brainstorming sketches that communicate clearly and efficiently.

Students had the chance to practice these sketching techniques while developing concepts for a headset and new forms for a medical product. After each exercise, the designers held a brief critique, sharing best practices and giving the students individual feedback.

As a result of the workshop, students gained a better understanding of some of the key skills needed to become successful product designers. They learned about WhiteBoard’s approach to brainstorming and how to generate ideas, quickly communicate them through sketches, and get them vertical for collaboration. These are skills that will help them become better designers wherever they go. 






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Soft Water...Refreshing Style

Asking the Right Questions Leads to Value-Added Solutions

A fundamental part of the WhiteBoard product development process is the “discovery & definition” phase. During this time, the WhiteBoard team partners with the client to identify and understand all the realities that need to be considered in order for the product to be successful (see "Form Follows Reality" below). When Ecowater, a leading OEM of water softeners, needed a new design for a key customer, the WhiteBoard team started by asking a lot of questions.

Ecowater’s priority was a design that would be stylish and modern in appearance. This was accomplished by looking for inspiration outside of the product’s otherwise utilitarian category. Additionally, through the discovery & definition process, the team saw further opportunities to make improvements to the function of the product.

First, the opening was lowered to make it easier to load the salt. Next, the brine tank was tapered so that the product could nest, saving storage space during shipping and storage. Finally, the design was streamlined to reduce the number of parts and simplify assembly.



The result is a modern looking water softener that is easier for the consumer to use and more efficient for Ecowater to manufacture, successfully sold through a leading national retailer. Consumer feedback has been very positive and the new design has resulted in a significant increase in sales.

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