POP Computer

Liberty Computer was a startup company founded by two young men with a common vision of introducing a customized point of purchase terminal to the dry cleaning industry.

Their concept was to offer a significantly improved alternative to the only product on the market at that time, the Alpha.

Development of the Liberty Computer was limited to a small group of multitalented individuals including the company’s two founders. The group consisted of an electrical engineer, software team and two designers from Integrated Design Systems.

Our responsibilities for this project included all phases of development from initial concepts to final production liaison.

We familiarized ourselves with the market by gathering photos of other point of purchase terminals. In addition, we defined critical product requirements including internal components which would ultimately influence product size and shape.

These activities were followed by concept sketches and foam core models which explored numerous alternatives for product configurations.

Shortly after a selected group of concept sketches were shared with the development team, we began further refining the design in renderings. When this product was developed, renderings were created with markers.

The selected concept was later refined with a more detailed rendering based on a tighter arrangement of internal components and membrane keyboard as shown here.

One of the founders proposed a keyboard layout with numerous single entry keys for fast input as shown in here. After carefully reviewing the concept, we rearranged the keys with improved graphics for easier operator interface. Presented are two iterations of keypad layouts.

Upon approval of the final concept, we discussed lead times, anticipated production quantities and tooling budgets before selecting an appropriate manufacturing process. Pressure forming and sheet metal were eventually selected as the two optimal processes. Pressure forming was applied to all external covers and sheet metal for all interior parts brackets as well as the main underlying chassis.

Production parts were created for the entire product during the engineering phase of development. Parallel with this detailing, our design group also prepared a detailed camera ready artwork with all specifications for the membrane keypad.

Approximately 8 weeks after the drawings were released to selected manufacturers for production tooling, parts were molded and first articles were assembled.

The final design proved to be extremely successful aesthetically, ergonomically and mechanically. When it was introduced at an industry tradeshow, customer reception was overwhelmingly positive.

The product’s early success was partially based on the overall design which provided ease of use

Ease of assembly, Ease of service and Attention to detail.