As the next example of a Calm Technology product, we will take a look at the Mui Board from Mui Labs. Mui Labs is a development and design agency based in Kyoto that was founded with the idea of promoting Calm Technology as a way to make digitalisation more human-centred.1 One of their first products was the Mui Board. An intelligent touch display made from natural wood. The board acts as a smart home remote control for all your devices, a display for useful information in your everyday life and a communication device by allowing you to write or record messages for yourself or other people in your household. It is easily controlled by the touch of your hand and integrates unique and innovative methods of data input, using the full capabilities of touch-sensitive surfaces.2
MUI board
Calm Interaction Evaluation // mui Board
Calm Highlight
The MUI Board excels at being an unobtrusive and almost natural user interface for all the needs of the smart home and everyday life. This is facilitated by the playful and natural way in which intentions can be entered into the device and output by the device. The gestures. For example, a timer represented by candles instead of just a timer: you select the desired time and then animated candles start to burn (each representing one minute). Another example is the sleep timer for connected light sources. Here, after selecting the functions, you simply draw a line on the board. The length of the line represents how long the light will stay on. As time passes, the line continues to diminish, showing the remaining time. In addition, in the last few minutes or sections of the line, the light automatically starts to dim to create a seamless switch-off.
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