Iron Security, Safety and Surveillance Products Design · 2025
Scramblefactor Biometric Access
by Travis Baldwin - Crea Inc Design Ltd.
- A' Design Award 2025 Iron Winner in Security, Safety and Surveillance Products Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Hirsch Secure
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 13,891
- Verification code 8292135CDD · Verify this award
About Scramblefactor Biometric Access
Scramblefactor is an access control reader designed for secure entry points. Three identification methods are combined: a card reader, a numeric keypad shown on a touchscreen, and a fingerprint reader. The keypad numbers change position, so an observer cannot read the entered code. The front bezel is injection molded plastic, and the custom display uses optically bonded glass. The reader is sealed to IP65 and is field serviceable, as the screen and internal components can be replaced while the unit stays mounted. Optional configurations are produced with tooling inserts.
Travis Baldwin's Scramblefactor Biometric Access represents a significant achievement within the evolving landscape of security interface design, where the traditional challenge of balancing technological sophistication with intuitive user interaction finds compelling resolution through carefully orchestrated formal and material strategies that privilege both operational efficiency and experiential clarity. Positioning itself within the contemporary discourse surrounding multi-factor authentication systems, this design engages longstanding tensions between security imperatives and user accessibility, proposing a solution that appears to synthesize credential card reading, biometric fingerprint verification, and numeric passcode entry within a unified physical platform that maintains visual coherence while establishing clear functional hierarchy across its interaction zones. The compositional achievement of the work merits particular attention, as the designer has orchestrated three distinct input modalities within a relatively compact footprint through asymmetrical distribution that creates intuitive scanning patterns, with the elevated numeric keypad commanding immediate visual attention through its scale and contrast while the lower register card slot and fingerprint sensor establish secondary and tertiary interaction sequences that unfold logically as the user approaches and engages the device. Chromatic sophistication emerges through disciplined restraint, with the predominantly monochromatic palette establishing technological seriousness and professional context while the singular crimson accent in the status display functions as both functional indicator and brand signature, a color choice that carries cultural associations with alert states, premium positioning, and immediate legibility that serves the communicative requirements of threshold security applications. Technical execution demonstrates considerable facility with industrial design conventions governing security hardware, from the apparent precision of the molded or fabricated housing with its matte surface treatment suggesting both durability and refined material sensibility, to the interface typography employing contemporary sans-serif characters optimized for rapid recognition under varied lighting conditions and viewing angles, to the careful integration of biometric sensor technology within a recessed aperture that protects sensitive optical or capacitive components while maintaining accessibility. The work appears to explore fundamental questions surrounding human-technology interaction at moments of verification and credential assessment, those threshold encounters where institutional systems interface with individual identity claims, and where the quality of the designed experience directly influences user confidence, processing efficiency, and security efficacy. Material choices throughout suggest thoughtful consideration of operational contexts, with surface treatments that appear resistant to wear, tampering, and environmental factors while maintaining visual sophistication appropriate to professional architectural environments where security infrastructure increasingly occupies visible positions within spatial experience rather than being concealed or relegated to utilitarian presentation. One might observe how the design negotiates between the authoritative presence required of security checkpoints and the approachable clarity necessary for diverse user populations, achieving a visual register that projects capability and reliability without resorting to intimidating scale, aggressive formal language, or unnecessarily complex interface structures that might impede efficient operation or create user anxiety. The integration of three authentication modalities within coherent formal expression invites consideration of how contemporary security paradigms increasingly favor layered verification strategies, and how successful industrial design must accommodate expanding functional requirements while maintaining gestalt clarity and operational legibility. Viewers familiar with corporate security environments, institutional access control, or facility management systems will recognize in this work a thoughtful contribution to an equipment category where design excellence directly serves operational outcomes, user experience quality, and ultimately the effectiveness of security protocols that depend upon seamless human-technology collaboration at countless daily interaction moments.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The scramblefactor is a modern take on a classic security design. The overally goal was an update on the original design, adding functionality and an attactive look that blends into the user environment.
The original was individual depressable buttons with a tiny screen on each button. This version simplifies the construction with a touchscreen, and adds 2 more identification methods with a fingerprint and card reader. The multifactor verification ensures secure and accurate access control.
It is a field serviceable product - the screen and internal components can be easily changed while mounted.
Unique design for IP65 sealing.
With the touchscreen display, it's easy to clean front face.
The front bezel has optional configurations using a tooling insert... the fingerprint reader and/or card reader can be deleted from the tool to create variations on the product. - Dimensions & Packaging
- H 6.14 in. (15.6 cm) x W 4.45 in. (11.30 cm) x D 1.93 in. (4.90 cm)
- Tags
- Biometric, Identity, Access Control, Hirsch, Identiv, Crea Inc Dsign ltd.
- Production Technology
- The product consistes of an injection molded plastic front bezel assembly that houses the pcb and components, such as the fingerprint reader and front glass display. The display has a custom front to fit the front recess and the custom gorilla glass is optically bonded.
There are multiple options for the rear cover.. either a sheet metal box, or a variaton of the box with a sheet metal sun visor. The front bezel assembly can also be mounted onto a wall, and the deeper parts extent into a standard off-the shelf plastic back-box mounted within the wall. A fourth option is a rear injection molded plastic back cover. - Design Challenge
- The creative challenge was to make a friendly but serious asthetic on a durable and complex outdoor access control product. The look and feel would have to accomodate a complicated assembly process to house the 3 different ID technologies, and fit within pre-existing sheet metal boxes. The industrial design would have to be almost completely realized by only designing the multipart front bezel. Additional challenges to the industrial design were the waterproofing gaskets and field servicable requirements.
- Project Duration
- The project started in November 2021 and most of the industrial design engineering work happened during the course of 2022. The detailed mechanical and electrical engineering was completed in 2023 and production started that year.
- Operation Flow
- A user approaches a Hirsch access controlled entry point and the ScrambleFactor reader will be mounted nearby. The user would approach the device, then wake it up with a touch on the touchscreen. First LED on the badge reader would lite up, indicating that the badge should be scanned. Once verified, a graphic display of the numberpad will then be displayed on the main screen, with the numbers scrambled in a un-predictable way. (The numbers would not be consecutive) The user would enter his secret pin and because of the scrambled numbers, an observer would not be able to determine the pattern. Once the correct pin is entered, an LED would light up on the fingerprint reader indicating that a finger should be scanned. When the user scans and verified there fingerprint, the device sends a signal to the door to open.
- Research
- The scramblepad is a product concept where the numbers on an access keypad can change position, to prevent an onlooker from recognizing the pattern of movement when typing in a code for acess. Originally, the scramble pad had physical keys with small screens on each button that could change the number displayed. The Scramblefactor uses a ruggedized custom-made touchscreen to simpify the construction and improve durability. This screen was developed around available screen supply and process such as optical bonding with Gorilla Glass. The multi-factor biometric that's been added gives a much higher level of security, where development went into choosing components for functionality and fit into the small area we had beneath the touchscreen. Prototypes were used extensively, both form models and working prototypes. This helped determine functional mechanical solutions around the size, shape, and ergonomic comfort for the user, as well as the overall look and feel.
- Inspiration
- Inspirations for the Scramble-Factor were high tech security devices out on the market today, however we pushed the design farther with sleek scifi movie inspiration. Previous Identiv brand language was used as an inspiration as well,
lookig how it could be evolved. - Image Credits
- Image #1: Illustrator Travis Baldwin, Angled Bezel, 2022.
Image #2: Illustrator Travis Baldwin, Assembled in Sheet Metal Box, 2022.
Image #3: Illustrator Travis Baldwin, Assembled with Sheet Metal Sun Visor Box 1, 2022.
Image #4: Illustrator Travis Baldwin, Assembled with Plastic Back Box, 2022.
Image #5: Illustrator Travis Baldwin, Assembled with Sheet Metal Sun Visor Box 2, 2022.
Colors of Scramblefactor Biometric Access
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