Year
2026
Scope
Product Development Industrial Design Engineering
Client
Paradigm
Paradigm's new line of performance in-ceiling speakers aim to alleviate installation times, reduce user mistakes, and maintain a premium experience.
Prompt
Using the same standard size transducers, design an installation architecture that reduces cutout diameter, and provides a fully toolless installation and removal.
Method
Understand, define, build, test, repeat. After committing to a push-to-install method being the best user experience, we iterated heavily on understanding and defining various mechanisms that provide appropriate affordances. Each iteration simplified, validated, and narrowed until final solution.
Answer
Two-part design. Push-to-install. Paradigm's new speaker system uses a threaded lock ring with a latch to appropriately secure the speaker module to an installation frame. The parts interact seamlessly. The action and locking of the ring also engages the frame's mechanism to release and tighten the whole assembly. Tactile feedback indicates when the module is fully secure and that the frame has automatically clamped onto varying thicknesses of ceiling or wall material.
