HPM-Legrand

Powerboard home user “Pod” — product identity study

This pro­ject is part of a wider study, which pur­pose was to define the evol­u­tion of the design codes of HPM-Legrand on its range of power­boards for home users.

Sobriety was brought by a col­our code made of black sat­in for the bot­tom and white sat­in for the top, to high­light the sock­ets by con­trast. Top of the product is slightly arched, to give a touch of soft­ness to the product. This shape also allows for bet­ter ergo­nom­ics to remove plugs and trans­formers (there is space between the top of the product, and inser­ted plugs to allow a bet­ter grip for fin­gers), as it is often dif­fi­cult to pull out plugs on a clas­sic product.

Locking/unlocking sys­tem by rota­tion on each sock­et to ensure bet­ter safety, espe­cially with regard to children.

The Pod range con­sists of 4 products with the fol­low­ing char­ac­ter­ist­ics:
-4 sock­ets with integ­rated child safety sys­tem, surge pro­tec­tion 150J.
-4 sock­ets with integ­rated child safety sys­tem, surge pro­tec­tion 150J, 1 phone surge pro­tec­tion (1 input, 1 out­put), 1 Tv surge pro­tec­tion (1 input, 1 out­put).
-6 sock­ets with integ­rated child safety sys­tem, with 3 sock­ets for trans­former plugs, surge pro­tec­tion 900J.
-6 sock­ets with integ­rated child safety sys­tem, with 3 sock­ets for trans­former plugs, surge pro­tec­tion 900J, 1 phone surge pro­tec­tion (1 input, 1 out­put), 1 Tv surge pro­tec­tion (1 input, 1 output).

Backstage of the project

Competitors’ trend analysis

Most of the home user power­boards offers a surge pro­tec­tion, as well as a main switch. Shapes are glob­ally very geo­met­ric (Hama, Infosec, Belkin Power Surge Center). The col­ours are either black/very dark grey, or white. The under­side of the product is always dark­er than the top (logic, to keep it clean when the product is on the ground). Some like Tributaries or BachMann bring a very technical/industrial style to their product. Belkin has a much sim­pler approach, almost sen­su­al in its style. Almost all of the plugs (except Belkin Power Surge Center and Socket Sense) have their sock­ets into recesses. This cer­tainly allows the plugs/transformers to be hold stronger in place, but this makes them in return, very dif­fi­cult to remove without pulling on the cable (which is dangerous).

Project trend positionning

Very ration­al and geo­met­ric shapes, with a simple prin­ciple of con­struc­tion. Product’s shapes should allow bet­ter ergo­nom­ics, and cable man­age­ment. They should also high­light advanced func­tions, with tensed curves. Products with a black and white col­our code, for an easi­er cos­met­ic integ­ra­tion in homes, but also to allow an easi­er iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the pro­duct’s functions.