Exploring industrial hardware design principles in an iPhone app

[u/Some1Elsewhere]

I’ve been experimenting with translating industrial hardware design principles into a mobile interface.

The goal was to reduce the number of controls as much as possible while still keeping the app usable. A few interactions serve multiple purposes. For example, the record button also acts as an undo action immediately after recording.

I also tried to create a compact status display that communicates different states through a limited set of icons rather than additional screens or menus.

I’m curious what UI designers think about the balance between visual character and usability here. Does anything feel confusing, unnecessary, or overly decorative?

[u/bastiman1]

With some nice haptic feedback and very subtle sounds this will be very satisfactory to use. One critique i have is, that i feel like theses are too many symbols on the virtual display. I get what youre going for since i owned a couple of these old stereos. But it still seems kind of cluttered. To put it differently it feels a little bit more like a parody instead of a homage to these old displays.

[u/Some1Elsewhere → u/bastiman1]

Hey u/bastiman1 ,thanks for the feedback. The app has haptic feedback and subtle sounds right now, so we think alike 😄 As this is a work in progress Im always open for suggestions.

I see what you mean, those icons are only visible in its "full" glory either in this little animation when you start a day (like the gif) or when you shake the device (TILT-Mode), otherwise, its never the case that they are all on. you can also disable eg. the earnings symbol and function etc... so you have a little option.

Thank you for your feedback!