Eric Wu Is Honored with the A' Design Award for Cobble Bluetooth Speaker in Digital and Electronic Device Design

Eric Wu honored for digital and electronic device design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Cobble Bluetooth Speaker by Eric Wu, designed for EW Design, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Digital and Electronic Device Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The recognition forms part of the 2024 - 2025 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 scored 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.

More About Cobble Bluetooth Speaker

Cobble is a Bluetooth bookshelf speaker with an interactive interface on the top surface. Four magnetic pegs can be placed in different patterns on a grid. When a preset pattern is completed, the speaker plays a saved sound profile, such as a nature or white noise loop. Cobble also works as a normal Bluetooth speaker for audio from a connected device. The placing of pegs recalls the board game Go and invites a short moment of quiet concentration. The prototype uses a wooden casing, sand-blasted acrylic panels and LED light strips.

Award Record

This recognition makes Eric Wu a winner of 2 A' Design Awards. All of the awards belong to the 2024 - 2025 edition of the A' Design Award & Competition.

About the A' Digital and Electronic Device Design Award

The A' Consumer Electronics Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good consumer electronics designs by leading brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to consumer electronics designers, consumer electronics brands, consumer electronics manufacturers and electronic product manufacturers from all countries. Entries typically include smartphones, laptops, televisions, cameras, headphones and smartwatches. Awarded consumer electronics designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/consumer-electronics

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://dezigners.org/167221
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/167221
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!167221
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/360819

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: Cobble Bluetooth Speaker
Function: Bluetooth Speaker
Category: Digital and Electronic Device Design
Discipline: Industrial Design
Industry: Electronics & Appliances
Colors: Sienna, Silver, Wheat, Gainsboro and Medium Aquamarine
Images: 5
Client: EW Design

The Recognition

Laureate: Eric Wu
Country: United States of America
Recognition: A' Design Award
Edition: 2024 - 2025
Design ID: #167221

Credits

Image Credits: Photos: Eric Wu

Design Details

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.
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?
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
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.
Realization and 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.
Operation and Interaction: 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.
Project Duration and Location: Duration: 6 months Location: Rhode Island, United States
Specifications: 7 1/2" (width) * 7 5/16" (depth) * 2" (height)
Keywords: Speaker, Office, Mindfulness, Audio, Music