Zonal wanted to develop a till that would impress its customers and their users. A till that would strengthen and support their brand vision. We underwent extensive conceptualisation to create a new aesthetic and carried out full product development and engineering design of the A new generation PoS Terminal, faster processing speeds, larger touchscreen, low power consumption, easy access and serviceability, wrapped up in a contemporary, bold enclosure, confirming Zonal an innovative, leading provider.

As always harsh environments were a key driver but focus was also required to the integration & positioning of digital signage to enable tailored messages, customer interaction & promotional campaigns while evolving the Zonal identity with a market friendly strategy.

We knew this new device had to raise the bar from a design point of view. From the outset we envisioned a product with clean lines, quality finishes and contemporary “pro-sumer” aesthetics. Consideration was given to passively cooling the device, maintaining its low carbon footprint in operation and future proofing the architecture to allow for future processor and display upgrades.

We worked closely with the Zonal R&D team & service team to get an understanding of the product options. One of the main design challenges was product architecture to take into account the future proofing & flexibility required throughout the typical product lifecycle of over 10 years. We worked on physical prototypes to test user ergonomics and these were developed from rudimentary prototype rigs to examine early pivot & modular display / customer displays theories.

After internal layouts were agreed several concept strategies were evolved to explore striking visual appeal while balancing an extremely small footprint for easy & flexible installation. We were heavily involved in producing high quality visuals for advance sales & marketing promotional material.

The engineering design phase focused on a high level of plastics design clipping together to improve assembly times & reduce screws – resulting in a plastic suite of 17 bespoke plastic injection moulded components & several castings / extrusions to allow the units to passively cool the system electronics.

Prototyping was essential throughout the product design and development program with early demonstration prototypes that were followed up by a CNC master prototype model to prove fit, function and initial regulatory verification prior to costly and long lead production tooling. Environmental testing was also conducted to ensure the strict IP44 standards were met.

i4pd provided tooling and manufacturing support for Zonal throughout the development where we liaised with our manufacturing partners in the UK and overseas. We helped to verify tool designs and ensured that all the plastics produced were to the standards expected, and to design intent. Important documentation and reporting was also part of our remit and this was strengthened with our ISO 9001 quality standards. We also project managed the transport of the tool from the overseas toolmaker to trusted manufacturing partners back in the UK, retaining a high level of control & interaction to ensure quality standards are met for volume manufacture.