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Story about creating a new interface for good

The story about creating a new interface for good moment with music, anytime and anywhere.


Moving moment, like one scene of the movie.

Groovy beets, that keeps the pace of workout and works.

Rhythm of morning, that prepares the mind at start of a day.


Good music has always empowered my day and life. During the weekend ride to the forest near my home, with my favorite bike at morning. Feeling the fresh air, listening to the music from smartphone inside my pocket, the idea came to my mind.

Why can’t we listen to the right music in right volume, in right volume, in the right moment?

We can listen to a various numbers of music by the help of music services these days. The tracks selected by the service are improving, and we can explore the new tracks more and more. On the other hand, there are a fact that such curated playlists has an experience that does not match the moment. There was me, that shuts the track inside by brain when the wrong track selected by the music service.

The music controls are very basic functions which smartphones, earbuds, speakers and smartwatches never miss to have. But why do we bear the moment which ruin the good time?

iPhone and other smartphones.
Totally wireless and a cable cutter, can load tons of musics and playlists. Has a volume buttons on side, while other controls are inside touch screen UI. Sometimes we hassle when controlling music.
iPod (2nd Gen).
A resolutional product at the days which can carry over 1000 songs. Has a large music control pads on the unit and it’s wired remote. Truly resolutional product.
CD Walkman.
We chose a disc for a day, around 10 songs per disk. Has a basic controls on the unit, and I remember it had a single button remote with earbuds.

For these days music experience, there should be a remaining hassle to solve. I took a note of the idea about “Music remote that can control music by fingers without looking at the hand” when the inspiration came into my mind. At the time, I was leading the project developing a touch mouse for computers targeting to create a premium control experience, which was very busy main work, the idea needed to stay in the memo pad.

Moving to automotive audio development team, we arranged the idea for car audio system with a confidence of the experience, arranged a prototype demo at a world famous automotive maker at Detroit. However, the idea did not come into consumer market at the time.

And after some years, having busy days with new mission to create a new product for education market, I started to prototype the idea as my personal weekend project, noticing a great prototyping platform called micro-bit, which was widely utilized at programming classes in junior high schools.

The prototyping progressed very well. And one night at my room, the music from sound system have changed without hassle, and the volume have tuned in the right amount, just by the fingers on the remote.

PEBLWEAR has always stayed in my pocket during the ride to forest, at work, and travel. And kept improving the quality day by day, to create the best experience for music control.

Music accidentally started during a meeting, couldn’t find it in the pocket in closet, dropped on the road, terribly wet by the accidental rain, putting in washing machine without noticing. These kind of accident always happens in life and PEBLWEAR is designed to be in the life.

Product design
Target to create a steady tactile presence, with an optimal size to bring anywhere. The looks of this product became like a pebble sits on a palm after repeating sketches and prototyping.
Even these days being an adult, pebbles has the charm and expression makes us daze to find the favorite one, from infinite numbers of pebbles at river side. Setting a goal to create a long lasting product keep attracting the user, we blended such charm and expression of pebbles into the design and branding.

New experience
Sweat and hart beet from body. Feeling the air and speed. The beet keeps up the workout. Pulling up the creativity of the day. The groove responds to the mindful start of the day.
The sound directly links to the finger, to get the right sound for the moment. The sound and groove for the rise of emotion, silence at the focus.

This new music experience have been realized, based on the experience and knowledge of human interface design.
And to bring this unique idea to every music lovers daily life, to empower the challenge and creativity by polishing the important moment, let me bring this experience into your hand.

PEBLWEAR | Creator
Yuhei Akatsuka