Cuebic

Three questions for the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
One of the biggest challenges we faced early on was deciding between building an app or a tangible device, and determining how users should interact with it. We envisioned Cuebic as an embodiment of your partner, so ensuring it seamlessly integrates into users' daily lives and environments was crucial. This led us to venture beyond our everyday black rectangle and explore unconventional forms and interactions. We experimented with various shapes and physical inputs, ultimately landing on a cube design that allows for intuitive, multifaceted interactions. The process pushed us to rethink how technology can convey presence in a more subtle, ambient way.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
While deciding on Cuebic's form factor, we fell in love with Calm Technology - a design philosophy arguing that the best technology should recede into the background, informing without distracting. This became our guiding principle for user-device dynamics. The concept of a multi-faceted cube representing moods quickly emerged. Balancing meaningful communication without unnecessary distraction, Cuebic sits in the periphery, subtly demanding attention only when needed. It mirrors how we often interact with partners - one quick glance tells us what's happening. Users interact through simple motions like flip, tap, tilt, or shake, reimagining how technology can support emotional connections unobtrusively.

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
Cuebic has potential to dive deeper into other important relationships that people have in their lives, we plan to explore further how a single cuebic could help foster all these relationships. Could we use it to strengthen our bonds with our parents? or siblings perhaps? Since Cuebic is an unconventional communication device, we plan to have multiple rounds of testing with higher fidelity prototypes to ensure the interactions are intuitive and fool-proof. The goal is for users to have a bit of fun while interacting with it and for the interactions to become habitual after a while. Another thing to we wish to continually expand on is finding more useful pieces of information they can share in these relationships to feel more connected.