Hammerhead Mouse

Hammerhead is designed to be a mouse that you can change the top half of the shell whenever you like, in the box it comes with alternative colours/designs so that users can customise their mouse in a quick and easy way. When creating a USP (unique selling point) understanding the advantages and limitations of the manufacturing methods used to create products is a great place to start.

During some initial research, I found that the market for computer mice is flooded with white-label products, these are products produced by one company that other companies rebrand to make it appear as if they had made it. This means that the standard USP within this industry is the branding and marketing that goes into selling it. Being the sole designer on the project, I had complete control over the product and brand design from ideation to how Hammerhead would be displayed on shop shelves. With this in mind, creating a USP that was not brand-centric became the main objective within the brief.

This is where effectively taking advantage of the manufacturing method could shine. Rather than producing a single hard shell for the mouse, a base plate could be used to hold all of the components and then a top shell could clip into place. Considering the simplicity of this shell, It would be a part that can be produced quickly and at a very low cost. By including multiple shells in the final package, we can produce multiple colours of one part to add a customisable aspect to the product. To consumers, this would look like they are getting three mice for the price of one (assuming that two extra shells are being included) even though the actual cost of manufacturing these extra parts would be minimal. This turns the product into something more unique that would seem like a good deal when being purchased whilst only costing a few extra pence to produce.

After confirming the USP that would eventually guide the branding and marketing of Hammerhead, the rest of the physical design work could commence. The product itself had been ergonomically designed using cut foam and plasticine, once the shape had been perfected a 3D scan was taken to turn it into a digital file. This had then been edited with Autodesk’s Fusion to create the moulding and internal support structures. After a few 3D-printed functional prototypes, the design was finalised.

The last touches on the project involved 3D rendering and packaging design to present the product. With the USP being the focus, a simple design was chosen to make the customisation aspect stand out in front of the intended target market. Using different combinations of shell colours, it is an easy process to extrapolate the product range as many times as needed resulting in one design that has now created a larger product collection all on its own.