Year
2015
Switcheroo App-Free Smart Plug
In 2015, I provided industrial design, user interface and product visualization services to Switcheroo to launch their first product. The creator of Swticheroo, Mike Neilson identified a need to sync multiple devices that would be plugged into his parents' wall outlets without re-wiring the house. He didn't want anything that relied on bluetooth or wifi or a smart device. The result was a simple device that uses radio frequency and a simple mechanical dial to sync devices. As long as two or more Switcheroos are set to the same send/recieve channel, they will be in sync.
Design Features
- Recessed face to protect the device from furniture
- Doesn't block other outlet plugs
- Dual plug to add capacity to wall receptacle
Form Exploration
It wouldn't be a product design project with lots of messy sketches, right? After trying lots of options, we ended up going with the simplest solution that would offer what we needed.
Preliminary Renderings
To provide my client with a clear vision of what he could expect the final concept to look like, I created a simple model in Solidworks and renderings produced with KeyShot. While the final product didn't feature an embossed logo in the top, the renderings were a near perfect match to the final prototype and eventually the production units.
Stylized Renderings
I played around with some less conventional lighting setups for the following set of images. I wanted to inject some fun in a pretty utilitarian device. The success of these images is debatable, but I did enjoy making them. Let me know if you don't like them down below.
Production
What's cool, is this is the first product I designed that's gone into production and I've got a U.S. Design Patent for it. It was successfully funded on KickStarter, then became available on Amazon.com for purchase. Buy it here if you want one!
