JUCE’s ambition is to bring focus and engagement back to meetings by removing distractions in the age of mobile. Together with design agency vanBerlo, JUCE started the development of the Arena.
The product consists of a physical arena that charges your phone while you meet and is supported by a mobile application.
JUCE believes that mobile is an essential tool to the digital workplace, and also an unfiltered source of distraction. By creating a designated place for your phone and hereby putting it in do not disturb modus, the full focus can be on your meetings. The mobile phone will only play a role as a tool; for making photo’s and setting new meetings in your agenda.
Designing in sprints with design agency VanBerlo
VanBerlo has been in the lead for the design of the Arena and in multiple sprints they worked towards a functional, good looking and producible prototype for the first pilot series.
In the second design sprint I joined in on finalizing the textile parts of the 2nd prototype. In a short study of 2-3 hours, we explored different kinds of stitching and edge finishes. Hereafter I upholstered the top tray and inner shell with felt and provided the label.
This prototype has been used by JUCE for their roadshow to get companies on board for the first pilot.
In the meantime, vanBerlo started with the 3rd sprint that focused on finetuning the design to make it more defined, less fluffy and to optimize usability and producibility. In a brainstorm with all disciplines (client, system architecture, design, softgoods) we chose 2-3 parallel paths to further investigate.
By using an iterative process of making many small prototypes I explored the different options until we had good insight in what would be the best solution for the pilot batch.
Pilot Series
After exploring the different paths, the final solution has been worked out and assembled in a small batch. Currently JUCE is running pilots in multiple offices in Belgium and the Netherlands, for more information on the pilots and pre-order go to www.gojuce.com
