Design Team
Lead Designers: Lee Tze Ming, Donn Koh
STUCK Principal: Yong Jieyu
Product Design Team: Cheng Siew Ming, Xie Chun Hui
Branding Design Team: Alec Wong, Donn Koh, Ng Xin Nie
Design Support: Lim Chi Yong
Designed and developed in Jun 2013 - Sep 2014. Launched in Sep 2014.
Please do not reproduce in any form or post on blogs without the expressed written consent from STUCK.
Designed and developed in Jun 2013 - Sep 2014. Launched in Sep 2014.
Please do not reproduce in any form or post on blogs without the expressed written consent from STUCK.
CLOUD ENCRYPTION KEY
Hardware for Digital Privacy, for FAST 2014
Industrial Design / Product Design / Packaging Design / Branding / Identity
Military Grade Data Privacy Made Available for Everyone
For FAST’s SecretKIY, we’ve transformed what used to be misunderstood as a USB memory stick into a representation of a shield of strength and state-of-the-art gate-keeping against data intrusion.
Challenge: A Powerful Product that is Often Misunderstood as Less
Due to the hardware components being almost externally identical to USB sticks, SecretKIY’s patented data protection system frequently faced the challenge of being misunderstood as a device which stores data in itself. This misperception is costly, because part of SecretKIY’s biggest security strength is that it does not put one’s data the security hardware itself, unlike many self-encryption USB storage sticks. Further, this mistaken identity also adds to a perception that SecretKIY is only worth only the commodity prices that generic USB memory devices command.
A strategically chosen revolution in form factor was required to help accurately express the high value of SecretKIY and to leverage product design to educate consumers about the functionality of this new typology in tech security products.
Expressing Strength and Simplicity
The composed ‘machined’ aesthetic conveys a solid barrier - like a safe - yet it exudes lightness and portability. Hitting the sweet spot of the hybrid personality SecretKIY should have: Solid, advanced, no-nonsense military-grade strength, but made for the everyday person with a touch of chic sleekness, approachability and flair.
Generating Curiosity and Presence, While Providing Convenient Portability
In moving away from USB stick proportions so as to create presence and curiosity with a generously-proportioned holder, the key challenge was to find the delicate balance between reducing the amount of material used, and creating enough ‘second-take’ difference for the product to intrigue and encourage learning about its functions, before dismissing it presumptuously as a USB stick.
While creating a notable difference with a generous holder, the result is a further judged balance between the tension of using just enough material to enable the device to be carried easily in a wallet like a card, yet trying to reduce the size for the pragmatism of environmental responsibility and costs.
Designing for Safe-keeping: Twin Purpose Packaging
SecretKIY’s ultra-secure technology provides a patented self-recovery system that involves no third party in one’s data protection process. Not even in situations of forgotten passwords or misplaced device does one require involvement from other than oneself to solve.
This system requires that each KIY be shipped with a RescueKIY that should be kept in the user’s safe, and only used in emergencies. If one should misplace his SecretKIY, this RescueKIY can provide a patented recovery access path to prevent security compromise and also give access only to the true data owner.
The packaging was thus designed beyond the basic functions of protection and presenting SecretKIY in its full glory at point of sale, but also performing the added function of a safe-keeping storage case to aid the user in keeping the RescueKIY in a safe place. It is also better that the user does not fiddle with the RescueKIY until he really needs it. Inspired therefore by the ‘break-glass in emergency’ fire-alarm triggers, the packaging helps one to keep the RescueKIY until only when emergencies arise.
