DOCKADE / THE DESIGN TRAIL
I used AI to take the first Dockade concept from an idea to a set of designs in an afternoon. Then I kept asking what could change, what could shrink, and what could go.
This is that design trail: the early concepts, the detours, and the refinements that followed. Every version left something for the next one.
Original design archive. Early images use the working name Stratum.
3D renders and AI appearance studies, not photographs of built prototypes.
Numbered versions, with the branches in between.
Some ideas came back. Others stayed in the archive.
V1
First concept
The starting point was a broad dark base, an upright phone and adjustable jaws. A soft thermal pad already connected the phone to a metal cooling assembly. It had the idea, but also a lot of hardware.
A 210 × 125 mm base, contact cooling and a 65° phone angle.
V2
Reduce the scope
Ethernet and the extra accessory ports came out. The next pass put the fan, heatsink, pad and HDMI/charging electronics into a compact packing study. The question became how little dock we actually needed.
A 112 × 66 × 34 mm core allocation, with cooling and electronics side by side.
V3
The Saddle
A deep cooling pod and a thinner electronics wing replaced the broad base. The phone sat at a shallow 12° angle; a flat alternative explored saving more shelf height. The small contact pad and flexible phone cable stayed.
A narrower 112 × 58 mm core; the body no longer followed the whole phone.
V4
The Deck
The phone moved onto a flat deck with a much larger cooling plate shaped around the camera. That gave more surface to test, while raising new questions about even contact, gentle pressure and wireless performance.
The contact area grew from 14 to about 60 cm². More area was a test idea, not a cooling result.
V5
Contact & retention
Four soft hold-down shoes replaced the fixed lips. Phone thickness and spring pressure could be adjusted separately, and interchangeable plates made different contact sizes easier to compare. The mechanism was becoming more testable—and visibly more complicated.
Adjustable side carriers, a simpler default plate and a removable cooling module.
V6
Appearance exploration
A silver top and recessed dark body hid some of the visual weight. We also explored a lift-off cap to protect the exposed pad between sessions. The cleaner silhouette was appealing, but the hidden mechanism still needed to fit underneath it.
A new finish and protective cap. These were appearance studies, with the mechanical layout still to resolve.
V5 revisit
Keep the useful parts
We returned to the V5 mechanism, made the existing soft thermal pad visible, and added the protective-cover idea. This was not a second thermal pad: the pad had been there all along. The cap came off before docking a phone.
A lift-off cover around the earlier contact-cooling design.
V7
A quieter enclosure
A continuous warm-white shell replaced the exposed rods, knobs and fins. A gray cover and restrained side vents gave it the feel of a small living-room accessory. Contact cooling remained inside; concealing the mechanism became the next packaging challenge.
The enclosure and finish, while keeping the thermal pad and removable cover.
V8
Back to the 3D model
The quieter enclosure became a dimensioned model. A flush cap covered the parked clamps and an 80 × 62 mm thermal pad. Beneath that were the metal spreader, heatsink and 40 mm fan. A clean outside still contained a tall stack of parts.
Contact pad → metal spreader → heatsink → fan. The covered body was 33 mm high, before the feet.
V9 AIR
Major pivot / cooling
Instead of pressing the phone against a cooling plate, we opened a path to its back. The broad thermal pad, spreader, heatsink and pressure mechanism came out. A larger 60 mm fan replaced the 40 mm fan, with space for air to escape around the phone.
The contact-cooling stack. Small supports still located the phone; the cover and 33 mm closed-body height stayed.
The orange finish pass changed the accents, not the geometry.
V9 / PERCH
Support exploration
Small silicone cushions on top of the existing supports explored a second use: resting a larger handheld with the dock fan off. The cushions needed room under the lid, so this branch actually made the cover 2 mm taller.
Softer handheld rests, but a taller cap. Real device fit remained a test.
V9 / REST AIR
Major pivot / supports
Direct airflow no longer needed pressure against a thermal pad. Four fixed, silicone-topped rests replaced the side jaws, sliders and stops. Set the phone down, connect the cable, and leave its back exposed above the grille.
The adjustment mechanism. The 8 mm starting air gap and lift-off cover remained.
V9 / INTERNALS
Parallel internals study
This parallel study kept the earlier adjustable supports and added an accessory connection back into the design, this time as USB-A. A proposed board sat beside the fan, and the orange control became a circular speed dial with a fan-only OFF position.
A proposed 34 × 76 mm board layout and serviceable parts. Its board layout and control carried into the later open-top revision; the circuit still needed engineering.
ORIENTATION STUDY
Alternate direction / not selected
Two landscape studies tried 45° and 75° for viewing and touch use. The fan tilted with the phone to keep the cooling gap consistent. Both added height and support hardware. The eventual direction returned to the horizontal V9 design.
Two viewing angles explored alongside the horizontal design.
V9 / REVISED
Major pivot / cover & height
The storage cover went away completely. Shorter padded rests brought the phone closer to the grille, and a removable guard kept the fan accessible for cleaning. The dock became a place to set a phone, with fewer parts to move or put aside.
A 21.5 mm main enclosure and a 5.3 mm unloaded phone-to-grille gap; 5 mm loaded remained a test target.
V10 / Stratum
Before the rebrand
The low, open-top design had taken shape. USB-C POWER, USB-C DATA and HDMI sat together beside the attached phone lead. This was the design we carried forward when Stratum became Dockade.
A 112 × 94 mm body, four low phone rests and an orange fan dial. The next step was the name and branding.
V11 / Dockade
New name & branding
The change from V10 to V11 was the name and branding: Stratum became Dockade. The dock kept the same shape, open grille, four low rests and orange fan dial. The new Dockade wordmark brought the product and website under the same name.
Stratum → Dockade. New name and branding, with the hardware design carried forward.
AI made it possible to explore and revise quickly. The next step is to build, measure and refine: real phone fit, cooling, noise and electronics still need physical testing.
See what we’re testing next