Sound and Sight

High stakes

Working on a company’s first product is a huge responsibility and I will always feel honored that Marin, Holger and Jonathan at 10k Audio approached me for this project.

Fitting in

When I joined the project there was already a clear direction in terms of motion design, with a display implemented by the team.

With such a small team where each member is highly experienced and multi-talented, a designer must find where to complement without overlapping too much.

Vision

The release had to have the bold impact of a product with a clear and concise vision, immediate reward for users, while at the same time leaving room for the depth expected by seasoned users.

Key Decisions

Main character

The display was already in a very promising shape when I joined.
It had to be the star.

As a designer that means nothing should try and steal the show. A good art for me is one main idea. More than one good idea when in the same visual can only make the overall output weaker.

Outside the boxes

I therefore tried to see how much the display area could be combined with the parameters expected to appear on the main interface. I did not want the display to be inside a box and the controls inside another box on the side as often happens in software where the code structure gets exposed in the UI while the separation is not one that means anything from the user experience point of view.

The goal was to make the real display estate interactive in order for the animation to feel integrated and not extraneous.