Introduction#
Recently, I was asked by a friend to help with technical training for some undergraduate and graduate students. The course content is "Rhino3D Product Industrial Design Practice", and I myself have a background in animation, but fortunately, the underlying technology is similar, so I agreed. When preparing for the class, I needed to prepare some case studies. When working on the Apple Watch case study, it led me into another familiar and unfamiliar field. The specific course content will be updated on the backup site, and the cover image is from publicly available Apple Watch design drawings.
Product Industrial Design#
At the beginning, I couldn't directly teach the students the technology. I still needed to know some basic theories. I found information and learned that product industrial design is a comprehensive discipline that aims to meet user needs and enhance product competitiveness through innovation and optimization of product appearance, functionality, and user experience.
The general process is as follows:
- Market research, investigating market demand, targeting target audience, etc.
- Concept design, based on the research, develop product concepts and key messages to be conveyed.
- Detailed design, drawing product sketches, dimensions, evaluating solutions, etc.
- Industrial design, creating 3D models and physical prototypes of the product.
- Verification, testing design solutions, iterating and improving.
- Production
- Mass production and quality control
On this planet, there is only one company that has achieved excellence in product industrial design and has been passed down for many years, and that is Apple. It is natural to use their products as teaching cases, and for me, it is also a challenge.
From Rounded Corners to Rounded Corners#
Friends who have experienced the iPhone X series products may be familiar with rounded corners. I say "after the iPhone X" because the iPhone has a larger user base, and this generation of iPhones divided Apple's design into two concepts: "rounded" and "sharp".
The cornerstone of "rounded" is rounded corners.
Taking the iPhone X as an example, rounded corners are visually manifested in the body contour, buttons, screen borders, and app icons. It is not difficult to feel the designer's pursuit of the ultimate "integration". These large and small rounded corners are derived from an invisible curve.
This is the direct factor that makes the iPhone visually "integrated" in terms of hardware and software. Because its screen edges and body surface are designed and constructed uniformly by such curves, this highly unified and minimalist aesthetic easily makes people ignore the complexity and triviality behind the appearance at the cognitive level.
The use of these rounded corners on the iPhone started with iOS 7 (perhaps the iPhone 4's rounded corners as well, but that remains to be verified). The above image shows the weather app icon in iOS 7. Before iOS 7, icons were drawn using rounded rectangles as mentioned earlier.
In general graphic design software, a rounded rectangle is commonly created by applying a "bevel" command to each corner of a regular rectangle. In other words, it is actually composed of four straight lines and four arcs. These rounded corners can clearly feel the presence of seams, and the intuitive feeling is that they are not cohesive enough. However, the rounded rectangles drawn by Apple's designers are a continuous curve.
Curves Also Have Grades#
In the field of design, there are three types of curves that computers mainly deal with: Bezier curves, B-spline curves, and NURBS curves.
These names are derived from mathematical concepts. For designers, it is only necessary to know that in terms of controllability and accuracy, Bezier curves < B-spline curves < NURBS curves. NURBS curves are commonly used in industrial design.
If we consider a straight line as a type of curve (which it actually is), then we can say that it is a curve with a curvature of 0. In industrial design, for convenience, the industry has divided curves into different grades. Correspondingly, curves also have different levels of quality, and the unit is called "degree," which is also a mathematical concept used to distinguish the equation level of calculating curves.
For example, in Autodesk CAD or Rhino, curves of different grades from 0 to 11 can be drawn. The higher the degree, the smoother the curve, but the more complex the modification and calculation. The commonly used degrees are 3 and 5. You can search for specific usage methods.
Similarly, the connection between curves is also graded. As shown in the above image, curve continuity is divided into G0/1/2/3/4, a total of 5 levels. The higher the level, the better the continuity, and the smoother the curve.
In Rhino, the continuity of curves can be checked using the curvature analysis tool. As shown in the image above, the left side is a continuous curve, and the right side is a regular rounded rectangle. The white lines resembling a comb represent the curvature of this curve. It can be seen that the continuous curve has continuous curvature. The rounded rectangle will have a curvature that instantly changes from a constant value to 0 at the junction of the arc and the straight line. This is the difference in curve quality.
According to the materials provided by the Apple Developer website, the curves used for iOS 7 icons are approximately 9th degree 10-point curves. The actual curves used are more complex, and they are composed of 5 segments of 3rd degree curves. However, a 9th degree curve drawn manually can already achieve a realistic effect that is indistinguishable to the naked eye, which is sufficient for producing renderings.
The outline of the phone is not "simply" achieved by combining a few 3rd degree curves, it will be even more complex. From this, it can be seen the rigor of Apple's design. (Here, I want to complain a little bit. I am willing to pay for this kind of design, but I will always protest against doubling the memory for an additional 1500 yuan.)
Compared to phones, watches are more personalized in terms of positioning. In addition to meeting functional requirements, they also have the attributes of jewelry (iPhone also gave me this feeling in the early days of its launch, but it is more obvious with the Apple Watch). The size of the watch is also smaller, and the requirements for precision are more demanding.
In fact, the first-generation Apple Watch was released in 2014 as a "One more thing", three years earlier than the iPhone X. I believe that the iPhone X borrowed the exterior treatment of the Apple Watch if we only focus on the appearance, the iPhone X is just a larger and elongated version of the Apple Watch.
The above images show the Apple Watch model and edge curves created by myself using Rhino. The main body of the dial also uses two 9th degree 10-point curves. The front profile curve is used as the path, and the side curve is used as the shape to rotate and generate a quarter of the overall surface. Then, the closed model of the main body is obtained through mirroring.
For surface detection, the industry also has a tool called "zebra analysis". As the name suggests, when this tool is opened, the model surface will generate zebra-like patterns. By rotating and observing these patterns, the smoothness of the surface can be tested. Flaws cannot be seen with the naked eye alone.
As mentioned earlier, not only the main body of the dial but also every component of the Apple Watch is drawn using curves of the same grade.
Furthermore, although Apple is responsible for the overall design of the product, the production comes from various parts of the world, yet it maintains astonishing precision and consistency. It is as if these components were taken from the main body, but it is difficult to convince oneself that there is no physical connection between these components. From a business perspective, you may not like their approach, but in terms of design, it is still worthy of respect and learning.
Conclusion#
The above is only the tip of the iceberg in the field of commercial product design. It is only aimed at people like me who have stepped into the field but dare not say they have entered. Professional players are welcome to discuss and exchange ideas.
For an object that is used every day, as a designer, I am naturally curious about what it looks like inside, how it works and is manufactured, and what information it conveys to me. Rounded corners and curves that draw rounded corners are just inconspicuous details. Like designs in other fields, if you don't care, there is no need to go to great lengths. Once you care, care about whether a line is perfect, even if it only looks perfect, the pursuit will be endless.
This article was first published on CG Art Lab | Welcome to subscribe for free by email.