Gradient UI Development
It was determined early on that the operating capacities of the unit would require a UI that could control the unique feature sets.
Working with our Product, Industrial Design, and Electrical team, I developed the UI in-house to create a cost effective and elegant solution.
The Industrial Design team came to engineering with a general design for the UI with a circular touch display surrounded by four physical push buttons. The UI needed to be sophisticated enough to capture all of the capacities of the unit, such as temperature control and schedule programming, but also straightforward for older users and those with sight impairment.
Requirements
Water ingress protection up to IP24
Four physical radial buttons
Integration of a circular touch LCD
Assembled independent of the Top Cover
To speed up iterations and reduce costs, a dedicated buck design for the UI was developed. This allowed for individual testing of the assembly, function, and waterproofing of the subassembly.
Through several rounds of prototypes we developed, tested, and gathered user feedback on several different design characteristics, including:
Button Material
Button Design
Press Force
Screen Mounting
Top mounted LCD Screen
Flexible Ring Button
Inset LCD Screen
Segmented Button Ring
Bottom mounted LCD Screen
Rocking Button Ring
Assembly
The final design required two plastic pieces, a round LCD with a flex cable, and a button ring PCB. It integrates into a sheet metal bracket and nests under the cosmetic Top Cover.
