Gestaltungsschwerpunkte

Designing the smallest possible physical interface.

Goal of this design course was to design a physical interface for a mobile device and make the individual keys as small as possible. This was still at a time, when touch screens where not prevalent. Our team decided to design a single comfortable key, rather than making all keys awkwardly small. The idea is that the single key is able to move on a magnetic grid and based on its position, the possible inputs change. On top of that, each point of the grid would be able to change polarity, thus attracting or repel the key.

During the course we designed the physical shape of the key and spend some time developing several prototypes. The prototypes range from a simple magnetic grid inside a clay form, to 3d renders, to an electronic prototype.

The idea is that the single key is able to move on a magnetic grid and based on its position, the possible inputs change.