work

DEV X: recording binoculars with five buttons

A concept redesign of recording binoculars. Form follows function, the body is stripped back to cut material and cost, and the interface has just five buttons.

Role: Industrial design, undergraduate project
When: 2017-05

An undergraduate case-bridging and redesign project: take a category of product and rethink it from first principles. The DEV X is a concept for Sony and is not affiliated with the brand.

Less, but better

Recording binoculars tend to pile on controls. The DEV X follows Dieter Rams' "form follows function": do the job at the highest level with the least complexity.

The injection-moulded body is stripped back to its purest form, which lowers the amount of material and the manufacturing cost.

Two details

Close-ups of the eye-piece adjuster power button and the five-button control pad

The whole interface is five buttons. Mode, Stop, Camera and Playback sit around a central D-pad, with a discreet record button at its centre.

Annotated render: binocular lens, D-pad and controls, textured grip, eye-piece, eye-piece adjuster and power button, focus adjuster