Crescent’s new offering of levels is a logical next step to ‘owning the bay’. Although a saturated market, listening to our consumer’s needs led us to innovate and deliver perfect accessories to increase Crescent’s market.

My role

Qualitative research . Ergonomic and usability study . Concept development . 3D modeling . Prototyping . Stakeholder and project management

The Opportunity

Crescent was venturing into developing a new tradesmen tool, the levels. The market we were targeting were the residential framers, commercial electricians and plumbers in the general construction industry. Talking to them and seeing them at work led us to these areas of improvement to innovate.

Vials were getting covered in concrete and grout when flooring and tiling work is being done.

Pocket level for quick plumb or level checking in tight spots.

Without ample protection around the vials, they were getting damaged easily, throwing off the calibration.

SKIP PAST SOLUTION TO RESEARCH & CONCEPTUALIZATION

The Solution

The levels family of products is an extension of the Shockforce measuring brand that leveraged real user pain points and feedback. Taking design cues from the Shockforce brand language, the family of levels are tough, user and cost conscious. There is a level for every need of a tradesman.

Patented end cap design equipped with a silicon brush and scraper to clean the mud off of spirit vials.

Patented pocket sized angle level to calculate angles in a tight spaces. One quadrant markers are specially designed catering to plumbers.

Shockforce TPE details around the vial acts as a shock-absorber that protects vials from falls and ensures calibration for a longer time.

Different level offerings

Research

User Interview

We interviewed few tradesmen from the demographic we had established. We observed and listened in closely to their concerns and needs.

From Insights to User Needs

Ability to retain accuracy (over time and despite abuse).
End cap retention on larger levels.
Ability to see vials to get reading in most environments.
Stronger magnets on torpedo levels.
Will it work in all (almost all) the situations they may need it for?
Weight and grip

A hierarchy of needs were drawn out to meet the user concerns and cost targets of the business.

Design

Conceptualization

As ideation started, we were looking at different solutions for the pain-points we heard. Starting from problems like losing end caps to vial guards. Then we started filtering it through eye of cost and manufacturing timelines and we chose few of these concepts to go forward with.