Charge Force Eco-system

Client Brief:
This was an independant, blue sky project I worked on at mophie. We kept running into the issue of having to redesign all of our accessories when there was a form factor change. While our new docks worked better than in the past (no longer limited only to iPhones), We were still limited by the physical constraints of the mobile devices.

Our ideal solution was an accessory system that wasn't bound by the physical dimensions of the devices they are meant to support. Something that we can carry through to future generations of products and that our customers wouldn't have to replace every time they buy a new phone.

Process:
I started by laying out our current (early 2016) line up of accessories. We had a desktop dock, car dock, and belt clip. This line would quickly restructure it self to include a vent mount and drop the belt clip since we had already released a universal style belt clip. In order to up the challenge, I also decided to incorporate charging because that's what mophie's brand is all about.

It was around this time that we started to seriously consider wireless charging. The technology had been around for years and we always looked at where it was and how far it had come; now seemed like the right time to take advantage of it. The inherent disadvantages of heat, energy efficiency, and size had been ironed out over the years and more mainstream companies were slowly starting to integrate wireless systems into their products. Chief among them were Samsung phones as well as various auto manufacturers.

The still left me to wonder how we would secure the devices. I had looked at many examples including Fidlock's latches and Lifeproof's quickmounts. Lifeproof, in particular, had a fascinating quick release system that mechanically kept your device in place; they called the system LifeActiv. Unfortunately, a mechanical feature would create a terrible clutter in an otherwise clean area of our cases and wouldn't be acceptable. In the end we sought to employ the most invisible solution possible, an array of magnets that would mate our products together, like magic.

Design Solution:
After defining our technological solutions, we needed to bring the whole thing together. This was no simple task, any additional inconvenience to the end user was unacceptable to me. To the average consumer, our cases must be as thin and sleek as ever. The experience had to be seemless across our line - this was something I fought very hard for since the beginning. I insisted that if we were going to produce a product like this, a product we claimed would be compatible with everything, we had to follow through by making everything compatible with the ecosystem. I'm very proud to say that mophie commited to the idea, and it was soon announced that all juice packs moving forward would be compatible with our charge force eco-system. From the lowest priced retail products to the highest.

The final product is now in every Juice Pack starting from the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. When paired with our wireless accessories, such as the car or desktop dock, the Juice Packs magically attach and perfectly align themselves for wireless charging.

Links:
mophie Wireless Homepage
Charge Force Vent Mount
Charge Force Desk Dock
Juice Pack Wireless for iPhone 6 & Charging Base
Juice Pack Wireless for iPhone 6 plus & Charging Base