Nothing Record - (1) [concept]:
Key take-aways:
This is my self-directed concept for a record player if it was made by the Nothing design company. I researched common pain points when it comes to record players and then simplified those areas. Every button, switch and dial has been thought out to a point where even what kind of click each makes has been considered.
The design was featured on the official Nothing YouTube channel which got it seen by over 300,000 people and reviewed by their design team
Development:
Direction decisions:
I aimed this product at young people wanting to own their first record player as more analogue tech like this is becoming increasingly popular. I realised I need to make it feel familiar while still keeping the analogue sound generation method. Regarding the design language I picked a primarily white colour scheme, following the existing design language. An all aluminium build was also chosen to give it a long life expectancy even in a busy house environment.
Goals:
I wanted this product to embody not only the Nothing design language but also their philosophy. This meant making it a fun product as well as an intuitive one. One area in particular I looked at was how the controls could be simplified so that a first time record player owner could almost instantly use it.
User experience decisions:
The glyphs on other products are always used for adding functionality, so in this design I made them sync to the music. This provides a more immersive experience by engaging more of the users senses. The lid is transparent so that even when it’s closed the user can still see the record spinning. The needle itself has automatic weighting so that the user can get a good output more easily.
Physical controls decisions:
There are three transparent dials; on the front with a smooth but heavy rotation and another two on top with two rest points, switching between them with dull thuds. Making these dials feel heavy indicated they are fundamental and important to operation. Regarding buttons, there are several on top to control the speed and play/pause with two additional buttons on the front to make sound adjustment very simple. All control changes are shown on the front screen.
Nothing design team feedback + Next steps:
Once my design was complete I uploaded it to the Nothing community and it was selected to be featured in a YouTube video. The design team reviewed it and gave me some great feedback. taking this information, I went on to create a second iteration.