Oxford Product Design

Oxford Product Design

Oxford Product Design

About

Making Things Better by Making Better Things.

At Oxford Product Design we’re on a quest to make things better. A full service, multi-award winning product design consultancy that started in Oxford, UK, we work with companies around the globe and are committed to delivering innovative, commercially successful products across a range of industries.

We work with some of the world’s leading brands, University start-ups and spin outs to create category defining products that improve how we humans live and work. Our specialist team are experienced at bringing medical, industrial, consumer and utilities products to market.

We’re innovators – curious, experimental and passionate. But our pragmatic, precise approach and highly technical expertise mean that manufacturability and risk management are at the core of everything we do.

Our intelligent process has been honed over hundreds of product design cycles. It’s rigorous but flexible, and it works. We’re ISO:9001 certified and are experienced at developing medical products within ISO:13485.

We’ll take your project from ideation to production, or can work alongside your team at any stage of the process – from technology development to engineering, visualisation, prototyping and project management – integrating with your house team or working independently.

We believe that we have a responsibility to drive both the practicalities of manufacture and the commercial success of the products we have a hand in creating. We work with purpose to create solutions that will defy convention, delight your user and exceed your expectations.

 

Project Portfolio

GaitQ

A smart wearable medical device for stimulating movement in Parkinson’s sufferers.

Parkinson’s disease affects control pathways in the brain, particularly those that control automatic movement. This can cause gait-freeze, an involuntary and sudden inability to walk. This smart, wearable device is intended to restore mobility by providing an external stimulus (cueing) that keeps people moving when a freeze is detected.

OPD worked with GaitQ to develop early design concepts and prototypes of a reliable, discreet and user-friendly wearable gait measurement. This smart device accurately reflects the episodes of gait symptoms and walking quality over time to track disease progression.

ACCO Shredders

Developing a striking new aesthetic for home and office shredders.

Red Dot Award Winner 2021
Design Effectiveness Award Winner 2021

ACCO is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of branded academic, consumer and business products. OPD developed the industrial design for its premium Leitz brand – a brand renowned for exceptional performance and style. The Independent Newspaper (UK) voted the Leitz IQ home office cross cut shredder the best for style conscious shredders.

OPD created a distinctive design for Leitz using a simple white and silver colourway, a clean look that fits with the existing brand identity and is suitable for both home and office environments. Bold, striking design details ensure that the products command attention when shown as small images on the pages of Amazon and office stationery catalogues. Contemporary aesthetics, intuitive usability, high quality build and durability were all key elements contributing to the success of these high end shredders.

WaveGo

Optimising the lighting in your environment.

Red Dot Award Winner 2019

This connected device handheld spectrometer connects to smartphones to provide quick and highly accurate light characterisation data including colour temperature and illumination.

OPD responsible for the industrial and mechanical design, electronic and software engineering, prototyping, validation and transfer to manufacture while Wave Illumination, an internal startup within Ocean Insight, brought their expertise to the requirements of the optical system.

The timeless design was inspired by the craftsmanship of Swiss watches and vintage cameras. Elements such as the rotating cover and automatic shutter hint at the complexity and precision inside the device. Accuracy in manufacture was critical to ensuring the success of the product. Working closely with Wave’s manufacturing partners, OPD visited their facility in Taiwan to ensure the successful transfer of the design specification.

Keeler Slit Lamp

Desktop medical equipment for the optometrist.

Slit lamps are used by optometrists to get a magnified and detailed view of the eye’s structure and inspect how the eye responds to different stimuli.
OPD developed the industrial design of the product to look both stylish and robust, with a high perceived value. Block models were created to understand the form and determine the ergonomics.

Slit lamps are often used ‘in the field’, so the design needed to be battery powered, quick to use and durable. OPD designed the overall form factor and docking station to meet these requirements, while the user interface was developed to be as intuitive as possible with optimised ergonomics.

JSP Vista

Safety helmets of the future

The JSP EVO Vista is a next generation, feature-rich, safety helmet incorporating fully retractable optical class 1 eye protection that is easy to deploy, adjust and maintain.

OPD worked with JSP to develop the industrial design and mechanical engineering of the Vista helmet. The design includes a safety cell feature which isolates the wearers head from frontal impacts.

The safety cell concept also prevents ricocheting debris travelling up the eyewear and impacting the scalp. In addition, the eyewear cannot make contact with the scalp, preventing injury should the eyewear be forced back on to the safety cell.

The Vista was also designed to be compatible with the JSP range of respirators and ear defenders to provide a fully integrated PPE system.

Ninja Multi-Cooker

A next-generation table top appliance offering a range of cooking functions.

OPD provided engineering and detail design support for the Ninja Foodi Multi-cooker table top appliance. The engineering team designed and detailed the sealing mechanism for the pressure release vent and undertook tolerance analysis throughout the design to ensure manufacturability.

Materials selection was an important design aspect due to the high heat generated in the cooker, so a materials study was completed to identify and integrate heat resistant materials use. Additionally, a design study for a new revised hinge mechanism to reduce the space required was completed.