UMA MIni is an extension of the Pablo Designs iconic UMA Sound Lantern. It is a portable lamp and speaker that allows you to take your music and ambiance on the go.
My role in the development of this lamp was involved with iteratively refining the proportions, strategizing performance goals for market positioning, and lots of CAD studies to work along side the manufacturer to optimize performance and DFM. There was a lot of close communication with the manufacturer about finding the right balance of specific components and our portions to give us the right sound, weight (hand-feel), and audio performance. It was a great exercise in creating a new consumer electronics product and integrating new technologies into it. We borrowed iconic features from the original UMA but refined them to fit this new smaller proportion. This gave the product both a fresh character and allowed us to meet a more attractive price point in the market.
My role in the development of this lamp was involved with iteratively refining the proportions, strategizing performance goals for market positioning, and lots of CAD studies to work along side the manufacturer to optimize performance and DFM. There was a lot of close communication with the manufacturer about finding the right balance of specific components and our portions to give us the right sound, weight (hand-feel), and audio performance. It was a great exercise in creating a new consumer electronics product and integrating new technologies into it. We borrowed iconic features from the original UMA but refined them to fit this new smaller proportion. This gave the product both a fresh character and allowed us to meet a more attractive price point in the market.
Here is the UMA Mini next to the UMA original. The UMA Mini is about 9" tall, and the UMA original is about 13" tall, including the strap position shown.
Out in the wild, this image shows the proportion well in the hand. You can also see how the cone is illuminated, strongest at the bottom and it tapers towards the top. The color temperature is a warm white, about 2400K.
This cutaway illustrates how things stack up on the inside.
This exploded view shows a simplified top-level breakdown of the layout of components without giving away any secret sauce. The top full range driver points directly upwards and the subwoofer in combination with the sound reflector give a 360 degree sound experience.
Below are process images of the development of the UMA Mini. There was a ton of iterative development!
Here's a comparison of two proportions. Multiply this by about 50x, below is a small crop of the proportion studies I did in the studio.
A small glimpse into the earlier proportion studies, most of them were 3D printed. The ones in the lower right had inner tubes I built into the model so I could efficiently add weight to get the best all around feel for the volume and mass of the prototypes. We were also trying quite a few strap variations. Shapes, the way they entered the diffuser cone, the length, and thickness of the leather.
An early prototype, roughed up from handling. We really try to live with lamps as much as we can to help inform a lot of the decisions that are made about form, function, UI, and CMF. This is especially critical when dealing with a portable product!
The trusty Pantone fan was helping me specify the color for the pad print of the Bluetooth logo on the Bluetooth pairing button. This was a study in finding the right contrast of the icon and the color and placement of the button on the lamp. The button is below the line of sight on the lamp, but we kept in mind that the user won't use the button often so the icon didn't need to scream out to them. Balance!
Above was one of our first working prototypes. It was like Christmas receiving this thing!
Party mode! You will be able to pair 7 of these to a single phone.
This is a line up of three prototypes that were shown at ICFF 2018 in New York.
UMA Mini was first debuted in 2018 at Light and Building Frankfurt. It will be available for purchase in Q1 of 2019. Stay tuned!
