Tobias Kappeler Is Honored with the A' Design Award for Dinkum Mobile Application in Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design

Tobias Kappeler acknowledged for mobile technologies, applications and software design by the international grand jury of the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 30, 2022 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Dinkum Mobile Application by Tobias Kappeler, designed for Tobias Kappeler Design, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

About the A' Design Award

The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.

Regarding Dinkum Mobile Application

Dinkum is a mobile application for spatial audio communication. Dinkum places remote conversations inside customizable audio environments. Users can select one of three room sizes, described as intimate, casual and adventurous. Users can also choose ambisonic background sounds, a full sphere surround sound format, that match the type of conversation and the participants. The distance to other participants can be changed during the call. The aim is to increase the sense of presence and to make remote conversations more natural and fluent.

About Tobias Kappeler

Tobias is an interaction and experience designer working at the intersection of craft, technology & design developing innovative products, applications and services that connect and empower people. His curious personality and persistence allowed him to transition between craft-based metalwork, construction management, mixed reality design and audio experience design, taking a multidisciplinary approach to design. His keen eye for details, prototyping workflow and passion for user-centred design give him a unique edge in developing innovative solutions that seamlessly integrate into people's lives.

Award Record

With this recognition, Tobias Kappeler is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design Award

The A' Mobile Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good design in mobile industry by leading designers and brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to mobile designers, application developers, software engineers and user interface designers from all countries. Entries typically include smartphones, tablets, wearables, mobile applications, mobile games and mobile software. Awarded mobile designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/mobile

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://designers.org/127093
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/127093
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!127093
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/311697
Further Information from the Laureate: https://bit.ly/3wNOXy8

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

###

Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Dinkum Mobile Application
Function: Mobile Application
Category: Mobile Technologies, Applications and Software Design
Discipline: Communication Design
Industry: Software and Electronics & Appliances
Colors: Lavender, Light Gray, Dim Gray, Light Slate Gray and Gainsboro
Images: 5
Client: Tobias Kappeler Design

The Recognition

Laureate: Tobias Kappeler
Country: Switzerland
Recognition: A' Design Award
Edition: 2021 - 2022
Design ID: #127093

Design Details

Unique Properties: Dinkum is a spatial audio communication tool that allows users to immerse themselves in customisable audio environments. Users can select from three room sizes (intimate, casual, adventurous) and different ambisonic (full-sphere surround sound format) background sounds that match the type of conversation and people they are speaking to. People can change their distance to other participants throughout the conversation, which adds an extra layer of interaction to remote conversations. Dinkum can increase participants sense of presence and intimacy in the conversation and increase conversation fluency.
Inspiration: Throughout the pandemic, I realised the difficulties of remote collaboration and the lack of attention to the audio side of the experience. We are flooded with visual stimuli but a lot of these experiences lack the emotional aspect of the experience. User research and secondary research into spatial audio technologies strongly informed the development. As a music producer and DJ, I’m fascinated by the emotional characteristics of audio.
Research: The project started with an academic literature review and interviews on real-time spatialisation technologies. After intensive ideation on different applications, I moved into early experimentation and prototyping to get a better feel and understanding of the technology and its value. I used an iterative and human-centred design approach focusing on the experience. Experiments were analyzed with questionnaires with a Likert scale focusing on the presence and intimacy.
Challenge: The challenge was to create an environment that allowed me to test with the necessary fidelity and change the audio in real-time. An additional challenge was the visual representation of a 3D space with characters on a small smartphone screen which is easy to understand, interact with and is visually pleasing and unique. I overcame this through prototyping the interactions on the phone while affecting the audio and visual interface in real-time through OSC protocol and user feedback.
Realization and Technology: The project was developed through iterative prototyping, intensive user testing and a strong collaboration between academia and industry. I used different plugins for the spatialisation of mono audio files in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and tested the experiences with different people. Furthermore, I built a binaural microphone for in-depth user testing with multiple people. I established a signal-processing path that allowed me to test with various users while being remote.
Operation and Interaction: To start a conversation, select the participants you want to speak to, select the room size which matches your conversations and participants, (Intimate, Casual, Adventurous) select the ambisonic background sounds and then start the call. Users can leave the room and create a new room during the conversations with individual participants. For recurring conversations, users can save groups and settings. In case a conversation drastically changes the topic.
Project Duration and Location: The project started in January 2021 and was developed by myself for my MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering until June 2021. The project will be exhibited at the yearly graduation show of the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London in June 2021.
Specifications: Dinkum was developed using the 3D Tune-In Toolkit real-time binaural spatialisation tool. This was utilised as a VST plugin within Ableton Live. The 3D Tune in Toolkit simulates the reverberation of different room sizes, the distance to the listener and the direction to the sound source. For user testing, I’ve developed a signal processing path that allows me to send an audio recording from a binaural microphone through Zoom.
Keywords: Communication, Spatial Audio, Interaction design, Immersive experiences, Audio & Sound, Mobile application, Teleconferencing, Conversations,