A microphone for the digital era.
Year • 2020
Role • Design Lead
Scope • Product Design, Brand Design, Visual Creation, Interaction Design
Status • Design Concept
Project Summary
During an internal agency project exploring the early rise of gaming and streaming in 2020, I led the development of a speculative microphone concept for the digital creator era. While LED indicators existed in hardware design, no concept at the time used them for real-time, interactive audiovisual feedback. My design addressed this by integrating LED signals that respond live to voice direction and audio quality, paired with an app for fine-tuning.
Key Decisions
Designed the product to feel bold and technical rather than blend into the environment, signaling performance and presence to gamers and streamers who expect expressive hardware.
My concept was selected from the team's explorations for further development based on stronger creator-centric use cases and experience-led interaction, making me responsible for the formal language, 3D construction and visual refinement, while UX and UI were developed jointly.
Solved the directional feedback problem through integrated LED signals guiding users to optimal speaking positions, paired with an app for fine-tuning.
Visual Creation
Smart Audio Indication
Mute by touching the top. In addition, the microphone detects the direction from which the voice is coming and indicates whether the audio quality is adequate by changing color.
Fully functional Prototype
UI concepts were developed in Figma, while a physical prototype - with LEDs, motherboard, and touch interaction - was built to validate the interaction logic with developers.
Outcome
Recognized with the Red Dot Award and the iF Design Award 2020, the project demonstrated how hardware and UX can merge into an emotionally driven creator tool, validated through a fully functional prototype rather than a rendering alone. It explored real-time interactive LED feedback at a time when this remained largely unexplored in microphone design.