iMPC Case.
Giving a touchscreen music tool something you can feel.
A phone-case concept that brings a familiar 4 × 4 pad layout to mobile music-making, using conductive fibers to connect physical input and touch interaction.
- My contribution
- Product concept, hardware integration, UI & prototyping
- Perspective
- Products for people, across disciplines
Design starts
with use.
Touchscreens offer flexible interfaces, but they do not provide the physical boundaries that help a musician find a control by feel.
The concept explores a case with tactile pads positioned over a phone. Conductive fibers link a press on the physical surface with touch input on the phone. This makes the case itself part of the interaction concept.
Decisions behind the form.
Form, function & contextA familiar spatial pattern
The sixteen-pad matrix gives each action a stable position, drawing on the interaction language of music-production controllers.
Treat the case as an interface
Thickness, pad separation, and the relationship to the screen become interaction decisions, not just enclosure styling.
Prototype the uncertain part
The critical question is whether a press transfers reliably and feels useful in a musical task. A visual render cannot establish that.
A stable position for every action.
Locate by feel
Physical separation helps a finger find a pad without relying only on the screen.
Transfer the press
The conductive-fiber concept connects a pad press to touch input on the phone.
Keep the mapping stable
One physical position corresponds to one control. Reliability, latency, and simultaneous presses are the next things to test.
What I would
test next.
I would test the input mechanism before refining the enclosure: missed presses, simultaneous input, latency, and different finger positions. That would separate an attractive form from a dependable instrument.