Industrial · Concept · 2019

Focusing on the essential in the attention economy

Minimal Phone concept render, a thin black device with a soft-touch circular button

Year: 2019
Location: GER
Role: BA Thesis, Industrial Design
Services: Industrial · Concept · Research

About

A thesis project asking what a phone looks like when it's designed against the attention economy instead of for it. The result is a dumb phone stripped down to physical, tactile controls and haptic feedback, built to be felt more than looked at. Developed alongside Incluse as part of my BA in Industrial Design, 2019.

Minimal Phone, front view, a flat slab with a single circular control

Front view. One control, nothing else on the face.

Minimal Phone, three-quarter angle render with the control partially raised and the speaker grille visible

The control lifted off the body, with the speaker grille along one edge.

Exploded render of the Minimal Phone, showing the control ring, PCB, speaker and battery separated in space

Exploded view: ring, PCB, speaker and battery, stripped down to what a phone actually needs.

Front detail of the Minimal Phone's control ring and housing

The control ring and its housing, seen from the front.

An x-ray style render of the Minimal Phone's exploded assembly

The same assembly, rendered translucent.

Process

From the sketchbook.

Sketchbook spread exploring tangible interface materials like wood, felt, fabric and silicone, plus the phone's key functions

Materials for a tangible interface, and the handful of functions the phone would keep.

Sketchbook spread of form studies for the Minimal Phone, alongside thesis colloquium notes

Form studies, working out how the device should look and feel before anything was rendered.