Design Story
PowerA Gamepad + Accessories
BDA, Inc.
The PowerA GamePad is a minimalist and elegant cradle that presents, powers, and connects the iPad to a flat panel TV for family living room gaming. The GamePad’s design is an exercise in proportions, minimalism and elegance that draws initial design cues from the Apple iPad design DNA. While the GamePad needs to provide connectivity and support to the iPad, our creative exploration determined that it should not draw unwanted attention to the overall experience, thus not relate to other overly designed gaming hardware. The top surface is mirror polish, and framed with a subtle chamfer. The underside is overmolded TPE which provides both a tactile juxtaposition to the mirrored top and a non-skid surface.
Special care was given to the docking geometry. The GamePad also needs to work with iPhone and iPod Touch, each with differing docking geometries. This requires a modular docking system with individual docking plates that net fit around the fixed 30-pin connector. Each docking plate seamlessly integrates its particular form into the overall form so as not to distract your eye.
Included with the GamePad are two game controllers and a family of gaming accessories; pistol, microphone, steering wheel, and guitar. Again, each item was approached from the point of view of minimalism, elegance, to yield an iconic gesture without being literal.
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