Foresight Sports - GCQuad 2015-2016

Designers: Charles Curbbun, LeeAnne Stossell, Julian Groeli, Blake Wang, Jin Chen, design DESIGN, Inc., DDSTUDIO, Carlsbad, California, USA
Manufacturer: Foresight Sports, Carlsbad, California, USA

Foresight Sports develops the most advanced performance analysis solutions in the golf industry. Since its start in 2010, the company experienced meteoric growth to become a global leader in launch monitors, golf simulators, gaming and professional software, and custom solution development. 

Foresight Sports came to DDSTUDIO to design their next generation professional-grade portable golf launch monitor system, the GCQuad™, for both indoor and outdoor use. Foresight Sports wanted to push the boundaries in launch monitoring and advance the capabilities introduced in their first launch monitor for performance analysis, the GC2. The GC2 used two cameras to pinpoint the ball, club impact, flight velocity and ball performance. 

The GC2 had been a popular release on the market with successful camera capabilities, but it’s housings needed to be more robust to withstand errant golf club swings and golf ball hits along with adding more functionality. 

Project goals and objectives for new features and capabilities in the next gen design: 

• Device needs to be portable, stable and foldable into a form factor that fits in a golf travel bag. 

• Aesthetics should follow the established GC2 and be industrial and rugged to withstand indoor and outdoor golf conditions including water and strikes from a ball or club. 

• Visual appearance must convey portability, stability and durability, with a clean look. 

• Stay on the ground during use. End user shall visualize information from the display from above. The display angle and usability needs to be considered in the design. 

• Work for both right and left-handed golfers. 

• Add new sensing functions, metrics and additional connectivity capabilities. 

Process and Insight 

With 2 more cameras along with other electronics and connectors being added, the overall format of the device required a fresh approach. All 4 cameras needed to be arranged for maximum visibility, which meant the device would be taller than its predecessor. We started by quickly creating 12 full-scale foam core mockups to evaluate the overall size, ideas for stands to stabilize the device while in use on grass or concrete, best location for LCD display visibility, button locations, and covers to protect the cameras during device storage. Angling the display provided easy viewing from a club swing stance and guarded it from direct ball strikes. The angled screen also created a rear overhang area that made the device easier to lift of the ground with one hand.