Cobble Difuzor Bluetooth by Eric Wu is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 A' Design Award de Fier in Electronică de Consum Competition Category.

FierElectronică de Consum· 2025

Cobble Difuzor Bluetooth

by Eric Wu

Client: EW Design

A' Design Award de Fier Winner in Electronică de Consum Category

40,651

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #167221

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Cobble Difuzor Bluetooth

Cobble este un difuzor Bluetooth pentru bibliotecă, cu o interfață interactivă pe suprafața superioară. Patru cuie magnetice pot fi plasate în diferite modele pe o grilă. Când un model prestabilit este finalizat, difuzorul redă un profil sonor salvat, precum un sunet din natură sau o buclă de zgomot alb. Cobble funcționează, de asemenea, ca un difuzor Bluetooth obișnuit pentru redarea audio de pe un dispozitiv conectat. Plasarea cuielor amintește de jocul de societate Go și invită la un scurt moment de concentrare liniștită. Prototipul folosește o carcasă din lemn, panouri din acril sablat și benzi de lumină LED.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Fier

Cobble Difuzor Bluetooth a câștigat A' Design Award de Fier, o recunoaștere prestigioasă acordată designurilor bune care îndeplinesc cerințele profesionale și industriale așteptate de la creații bine concepute. Câștigătorii Fierului demonstrează mare pricepere, înaltă specializare, înțelegere de specialitate și capacitate creativă din partea creatorilor lor. Se așteaptă ca Cobble Difuzor Bluetooth să fie o creație foarte apreciată, admirată și prețuită, practică și inovatoare. Acest design câștigător al A' Design Award de Fier integrează cele mai bune practici din industrie și are caracteristici tehnice competente îmbinate cu know-how și talent. Pentru acuratețea sa, Cobble Difuzor Bluetooth merită respect și este conceput pentru a aduce îmbunătățiri ale calității vieții care ajută la facerea lumii un loc mai bun.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Cobble is a speaker with an interactive interface at the top. The user has access to 4 pegs that they can place in various patterns. When preset patterns connect, the speaker plays a saved tone. The speaker is made with the concept of "inadvertent mindfulness." Studies have found that the simple action of concentrating on one's actions offer moments of respite. By placing pegs, much like how one places stones in a Go game, the user enjoys a moment of peace.
Dimensions & Packaging: 7 1/2" (width) * 7 5/16" (depth) * 2" (height)
Tags: Speaker, Office, Mindfulness, Audio, Music
Production Technology: The prototype was constructed with a wooden casing with a four-panel construction. Sand-blasted acrylic panels are used to diffuse the lighting from LED light strips. The prototype control panel was made from an Arduino nano and will be replaced with more efficient chips in mass production. We experimented with various sensing methods and settled on magnetic sensing with Hall effect sensors as they appeared to be the most reliable.
Design Challenge: The hardest part was figuring out the sweet spot of a big enough surface area and a compact enough footprint, the product being a shelf speaker after all. People wanted to engage with the interface but too much of it offered diminishing returns and research participants had more complaints of space constraints.
Research: User research was conducted in collaboration with co-working spaces. We tested hypotheses like the following:
- How much spacing and how big do people prefer the pegs to be
- How many rows and columns work the best, offering novelty and comfort without overloading the user
- What footprint works the best without sacrificing too much room for interaction
Inspiration: The design originated in a desire to question the prevalence of active mindfulness practices today. We have meditation apps, mindfulness sessions offered by corporations, and many more. While mindfulness is great, there are alternative activities that humans go to for similar purposes, without bearing the label of "mindfulness." Go, the Asian board game using stones, was a primary inspiration. What if we could have something built in that stimulates a sense of mindfulness, just like Go?
Project Duration: Duration: 6 months
Location: Rhode Island, United States
Operation Flow: The product behaves like a normal bluetooth speaker, so the user can connect to it with an end device and play whatever they want.

The unique interaction is that it can save and activate various sound profiles, which can be activated via placement of the magnetic pegs. The user would have to download a mobile app to change the default profiles, which are nature and white noise sound loops.
Team Members: Eric Wu
Image Credits: Photos: Eric Wu