Bublz
University of applied science Coburg, Team project
In this project we teamed up with Gigaset. They provided us with the tast to design a communication device for outdoor experiences.
The result is Bublz. It was especially developed infront of an equestrian sports background. It keeps the members of a group connected at any time and any speed. But it can also act as a safety appliance if you are out on your own. In case of an incident a specific contact will receive an immediate notification.
After choosing equestrian sports as our target sport we did a number of analythic session. We especially focused on the interaction between human and device in the context of the sport.
As a result Bublz uses simple one key commands to connect either to a mobile device and start tracking your route or it connects itself to other Bublz of a group to form a cluster. Once the device is in the cluster mode you can either mute the group to enjoy a few moments of silence or you can tune the conversation withing the group to a desired volume.
The initial research showed that it was important to keep the device small enough to be worn on different parts of the body or the equipment. Hence that we focused a lot on the interface to ensure sightless handling with your gloves on.
The physical prototyping accompanied us during a lot of the actual design process. The picture shows one of the first sets of foam prototypes. Those were made after we decided on the general size of the device and the number of physical buttons we wanted to use for our one key commands. We also tested different shapes from our ideation sketches in their three dimensional form.
The final design features a large speaker surface, big keas and a male mounting point which can connect to a series of female adapter solutions.
The device kit has two main mounting systems to support your preffered way of wearing Bublz. The most important feature in this regard is that the device is rotateable 360° even once it is set into the chosen style of on mounting system.
The final 3D data was made with Solid Works although we used Rhinoceros for our quick 3D prototypes.
During our studies, we were always encouraged to design as detailed as possible. That´s why the design includes a fully assembled cirquit board, as well as a proper solution for the general power supply and the loading process.
We also planned a compannion App where contact detail can be changed and the data from tracked activities is saved and ready to be analyzed.