Our clients typically face a dilemma at the outset of a new project. They need to progress their project far enough to attract the full project funding but often have only limited start-up funds. To maximise those funds, we upskill our clients to equip them to create much of the collateral required to convince the most cynical investor. So not only do we produce convincing proof-of-concept rigs and stunning boardroom demonstrators, but we also help back these up with credible commercial and technical due diligence.

We prefer to help our clients onboard the skills and knowledge to undertake new product development within their own team but eventually all NPD projects require specialists in areas such as testing, engineering design, Design for Manufacture (DfM), Design for Reliability (DfR) and compliance. We have the specialist skills to help you cross the NPD ‘Chasm of Doom’.

We have worked closely with psychologists, ergonomists, ethnographers, and semioticians over many years who understand the value of the physical object in design research. We have enhanced design research through the creation of physical research collateral including: CMF (colour/material/finishes) samples, chip sets and physical libraries, initial form-factor/ ergo-analytical mode, and complete immersive environments.

We support concept ideation and engineering exploration with spatial block models and Proof-of-Priciple (POP) Rigs that address and mitigate identified design risks at the earliest stage possible.

Throughout the development of the product, rigs and models are built to test design both through functional verification and ongoing user validation.
In support of DfM (Design for Manufacture), we produce pre-production prototypes, and manage the production of clinical trials samples.

We design and develop lifecycle and environmental test equipment to ensure that pre-production and initial production samples meet the functional requirements of the Product Design Specification.

Physical testing is critical to ensure product reliability and safety. For many companies access to testing facilities is challenging. Test houses are essential for final validation and to undertake compliance testing, but they are an expensive option for iterative development or ‘knife and fork’ testing.

Interactual has created a low-cost physical verification service primarily focused on mechanical testing (force, strain, compression, temperature and humidity). We have also provided design guidance and built test equipment for acoustic, video and wireless signal transmission verification and we are specialists in accelerated lifecycle testing.

We will help you to create a testing strategy that addresses project risks in order of priority. We can provide a full service that includes design of tests, rig building and the testing itself, or we can support client teams to undertake testing for themselves.

We recognise that bootstrapping can only take many of our clients so far through the development process and that they inevitably need to seek further funding, either internally sourced or from outside investment or grant-funding.

We create the right ‘wow factor’ physical collateral for that specific moment. ‘Convincers’ divert budget from development, so we only include what’s absolutely necessary to pitch or sell the product. These include visual/functional demonstrators, pre-production marketing samples, launch mock-ups and displays, exhibition models and maquettes and POS displays and Kinetic installations.