Tria Beauty offers products that bring professional technology out of the doctor’s office and into the home. After launching several devices that make advanced clinical skin treatments for hair removal and acne treatment portable and convenient, the company partnered with IDEO to design, engineer, and launch a new anti-aging device for use in daily beauty regimens.
The Tria Skin Rejuvenating Laser was the result. Designed for women of all skin types who desire professional anti-aging benefits, the Skin Rejuvenating Laser combines clinically proven, non-ablative fractional laser technology with robust engineering and elegant design for at-home skin care. “Because of the engineering expertise that IDEO incorporated despite a very tight schedule, we were able to save significant time, money, and stress when it came to the tooling and first shot reviews,” says Jay Vahlensieck, Tria Mechanical Engineering Manager.
IDEO’s design and engineering team developed the product from rough sketch concepts to detailed production engineering development that Tria Beauty could take directly into production. The product has a robust and high-quality feel in the hand as the result of a complex five-piece housing that minimizes and hides fasteners. Technical necessities, such as vents within the overall form, are hidden in the void around the upper ‘laser engine cover’ at the rear of the product. This assembly was created and tested through multiple engineering builds and a complex tolerance-analysis system.
The direction for this design solution was uncovered after multiple human-centered design research observations with women and men across a range of ages and skin types. During the research phase, the team sought to understand how potential customers thought about their skin and signs of aging, what they were doing about it, and what they thought about the existing options. This research led to a set of guiding principles for the overall design: a device that expressed the professional power of the laser in a controlled, delightfully beautiful form, while also fitting effortlessly on bathroom counters and dresser tops into nightly anti-aging skin care routines. “We wanted to create a product about beauty, with a form that could fit on Audrey Hepburn’s makeup stand,” says one designer.
The Tria Skin Rejuvenating Laser presents a refined and visually quiet form that expresses poise and elegance. Purchasers praise its ease of use, achieved by the sophisticated human-centered design interface. In essence, the Skin Rejuvenating Laser captures powerful industrial design in a form that both looks beautiful on the shelf and feels beautiful while in use.
Link: http://www.ideo.com/work/tria-skin-rejuvenating-laser/
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