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[P] TestCut's design language cascade

A project log for Tetent TestCut [gd0139]

A cuboid input device.

kelvinakelvinA 10/12/2022 at 21:160 Comments
So I printed the TestCut, and the SD card decided to disconnect for a split second, causing my DP2 to stop printing and home. Conviniently, this was just after the Tetrinsics for Finger5 were printed, and I was able to correct issues with the original design.

For starters, 3 degrees was much too shallow, so it was increased to 18 degrees. Finger5 was also much too close to my lap / table surface. I hastily added those tweaks and printed out the second version to the right.

Changes to TestCut

The angle is now too steep so I'm going to try 14 degrees next. Finger5 is also too close to Finger4 so I moved that back to the same 20mm spacing as the other fingers. Finger3 was too deep in the trench, so the distance from the surface was brought up by 1.5mm.

I'm going to sleep on the design and add any tweaks before I print out another version.

Changes to a chunk of other projects

You see... I quite like this marble/granite block shape, and if you noticed, I've also liked the look of tiles (see #SecSavr Sublime [gd0036] #SecSavr Skyrise [gd0092] and it's the reason behind the name #T^2 Tiles [gd0095]). When using TestCut, it just looks like a diamond square (a square rotated 45 degrees), which is much less mentally stimulating than my mouse and keyboard. It has the same vibe of what windows look like usually verses a freshy washed and polished one.

Teti

This got me thinking. If #Tetent Timespy [gd0136] embraced more of that cuboid design, I could fit a larger display. But then, with 2 crisp, angular designs, things like Tetent and #Teti [gd0022] were going to look out of place.

So I tried deleting a few faces in Teti to see what solutions could be availabe.

I kept going, deleting more faces. I'll make relevant logs in the relevant projects, but eventually I stopped experimenting and settled on this:

Now this had a crisp, marble + copper look to it that reminded me of my earliest days in Minecraft 1.7 when I was designing a building with quartz (a white block) and dark oak (a dark brown wooden block), and I was like "oh noh... it's good looking with those crisp white edges and a hint of nostalgia!". 

Tetent may need a redesign anyway if I determine that Finger5 is actually a good addition. I've said it many times before: I don't want to learn 2 layouts. This means I don't want to be switching what tasks the thumb is doing just because there isn't a Finger5 Tetrinsic in the design.

SecSavr

The thing is, I've also been imagining what an updated #SecSavr Suspense [gd0105] concept would look like the past month and a bit while I've been designing Tetent 'n' co. I was imagining it'll just look like a large, wide block... actually let me just model an image really quick.

Ok this is what I was going to describe, but this isn't how it looked like in my mind because I never modelled it so I didn't realise that the 40x50cm panel I planned for the centre door was going to look uselessly small:
The doors are like a dishwasher one. The aim is "consumer grade" so I thought this looked "boring" and consumer-appliance-like. Anyway, I had also decided to try the same strategy I used for Teti a year ago, which was to ask the question "If I was designing a product in a design firm, how would I design the look of it?"

For the Suspense, that would be some sharp-edged marble box with black glass surfaces on the doors:

Something that I could see in an architecture or art studio. This idea looks awfully like the new Teti design proposal.

This look is also similar to the GUI ideas I've had floating in my head for things like #SecSavr Sol^2 [gd0045], and even my kelvinA logo has a bunch of 90 degree bends so it seems that Me In The Past was close to realising I should persue a new design language sooner or later.

Other projects

I've already started thinking of a new #TetInventory [gd0039] design, though I should probably leave #TEOSS [gd0037] out of this unless I can actually get a good low-poly look. I couldn't compute a concept solution for the button of #Situation SeriouS [gd0098] when trying to incorporate the filleted chamfers, but I've got one or two ideas that stem from the new Suspense / Teti concepts.

Conclusion

I've got no idea why it seems that all the "this is just a small side project... wait actually it's pretty important" projects (Suspense, Timespy, TestCut) always seem to force recalculations in a bunch of my other projects. I guess it's a nice problem to have.

When I write the logs to address these changes in more detail, I'll add links below.

[14 Oct 2022] The new Timespy concept

[18 Nov 2022New TyMist concept

[7 Mar 2023] New SecSavr Suspense concept

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