MusiCubes
Bringing a Vision to Life:
Music-Making for Everyone
Services
Industrial Design
Interaction Design
Branding
About the Product
MusiCubes is a revolutionary instrument. It consists of a tablet and a set of cubes that puts music creation at everyone’s fingertips—whether you’re 2 or 102 years old.
Place cubes on the MusiCubes tablet to instantly create music. Each cube triggers a music loop, or a sound effect. Mix melodies, rhythms, and effects in real time to create your own unique compositions. MusiCubes is like Apple GarageBand, but screen-free, intuitive, and accessible to everyone.
Design Challenge
MusiCubes approached us with a patented technology and ambitious vision: to make music creation accessible to everyone through wooden blocks, combining sustainable materials with RFID technology. Founder Hayri C. Bulman needed a partner to translate this vision into a desirable, feasible, and viable product.
The project presented two critical challenges: Developing an engaging interaction design to achieve high user retention, while enabling a scalable business model similar to Toniebox or Nespresso. At the same time, we had to define a design language with multi-generational appeal—for children, adults, and elderly users alike.
Our Solution
Within just three months, we transformed the vision of MusiCubes from a patent into a complete product ecosystem ready for investor presentation. Our comprehensive approach delivered all assets relevant for a startup: refined product design, cohesive branding, and a website.
The results were immediate and measurable: exclusively positive feedback from investors and key opinion leaders; accelerated time-to-market through rapid development; and most significantly, an increase in company valuation “by an order of magnitude,” as noted by the founder. This valuation boost directly resulted from making the abstract concept tangible and investment-ready.
Testimonial
“I was particularly impressed by the speed in which Notation understood the challenge and developed an outstanding, delightful solution. It was definitely the right decision to work with Notation.”
Hayri C. Bulman
Founder & Inventor of MusiCubes
Services
We followed our proven design process to translate the vision of MusiCubes into a tangible and desirable user experience. Our advantage was the ability to provide an integrated set of services: from design strategy, to interaction design, to industrial design and branding.
* Design Vision | Interaction Design | Industrial Design | Acoustic Design | Manufacturing Optimization | Brand Strategy | Logo Design & Naming | Copywriting | Icon Design | Website, Design, SEO | Product VisualizationInsight Phase
Design Strategy
How can you make a product desirable for a broad target group while still creating a distinctive, striking look and feel? Those two requirements often conflict. At the same time, we had to meet an ambitious BOM cost and follow a lean manufacturing approach.
Our solution was a minimalist design language, with distinctiveness achieved through a vibrant color scheme. We created a symbolic connection to the world of audio by referencing the classic vinyl turntable as an archetype and starting point for our design. Using a familiar reference point made it easier for users to accept an innovative product.
This is the power of a good design strategy. When done right, it makes the job of marketing and sales easier because you have less explaining to do.
Brand Strategy
In this project, branding and product design went hand in hand. We translated the founder’s vision into tangible principles and values early on. The product needed to be intuitive, universally accessible, and sustainable. Those values translated into attributes such as a very easy-to-use interaction design, the use of minimalist, Bauhaus-inspired shapes and vibrant colors, and sustainable materials like beech wood and recyclable polymers.
This foundation guided our decisions and ensured a coherent, consistent, desirable, and differentiating user experience.
Testimonial
“This is the power of a good design strategy: It makes the job of marketing and sales easier because you have less explaining to do.”
Iwan Hänggi
Owner / Design Strategist at Notation
Concept Phase
Interaction Design & Rapid Prototyping
Through rapid video prototyping, we established intuitive interaction principles that make music creation accessible to novices while maintaining depth for continued engagement.
Our video demonstrations allowed stakeholders to evaluate game mechanics without time-consuming engineering, compressing months of traditional development into just one week.
Industrial Design Concept
After developing the interaction design, we focused on finding the right design language for both the tablet and the cubes. Once we identified the turntable as an archetype, we translated it into a scalable design system, consisting of a 24x24mm grid and the core shapes of rectangles and circles.
Product Management & Requirements Engineering
Based on the industrial design concept, we created comprehensive documentation of all product requirements to support outreach to development and manufacturing partners.
Delivery Phase
Industrial Design Delivery
We went through more than 10 iterations of rapid prototyping and testing, refining every detail of the design. Our solutions not only met the briefing but also achieved a significantly lower BOM cost—a very positive surprise for our client, as it enables a more disruptive go-to-market approach.
Every euro saved on the BOM translates into pure profit. Our craft lies in reducing BOM cost without compromising the user experience.
Acoustic Engineering & Design
We partnered with Clément Richard from SoundFeel Lab to develop the electro-acoustic engineering for MusiCubes. The omnidirectional interaction design called for a mono speaker optimized for battery efficiency. At the same time, we wanted users to be able to turn up the volume when mixing a song. In the end, we went for a ported design in combination with the Visaton BS 32 S as it is a well known, established transducer that will not cause any troubles during the manufacturing of the product.
Product Graphics & Icons
We developed all the icons for the instruments, along with a scalable design system. Icons were optimized for manufacturing, readability, and to clearly represent each music loop and sound effect.
Design Documentation & Industrialization Support
To support collaboration with manufacturing partners, we documented the design using vector drawings, STEP files, and CMF documentation.
Branding
Brand Design
We developed the brand design in parallel with the product design. We ensured the articulation felt fresh, modern, and attractive to all ages—from art direction and color systems to typography and grid. One key challenge was selecting a color palette that was both unique and met contrast accessibility standards.
Naming & Logo Design
We created a custom wordmark for MusiCubes. As the startup had no existing brand awareness, it was essential to ensure readability and recognizability. The logo was also designed to work directly on the product.
Landing Page Design
We handled the full structure, information architecture, copywriting, and visual design, building the landing page in Squarespace. Our process was efficient and required no revisions. We also implemented technical SEO and integrated Google Analytics with support from a specialist freelancer.
Collaboration
& Process
Collaboration
This project stood out for the high level of trust shown by founder and inventor Hayri C. Bulman. He gave us full autonomy in how to approach the challenge. Every team member contributed to the project, and the final result reflects the strength of that collaboration.
A prooven 4-step approach
Every Notation project follows the same four-step process. We began with an Understand phase to understand requirements. Then came Insights phase to ensure we follow the right approach. Next, we translated strategy into a concept meeting all key criteria. Finally, we refined and delivered every detail needed to bring the product to life.
Insights and Learnings
We drive the Process
The founder of MusiCubes, Hayri C. Bulman, gave us complete autonomy in how we worked on this project. He had a clear vision and communicated it effectively, but trusted us to bring it to life. He embodied the “Who Not How” principle described in this article.
Rapid Prototyping Matters
Transforming a vision and patent into a market-ready product requires rapid prototyping and clear design principles from the outset. For MusiCubes, our early involvement in defining both interaction and industrial design was crucial in building a product that democratizes music-making while supporting a scalable, content-based business model.
Holistic Design
Creating branding and product design simultaneously leads to a more holistic and impactful user experience.
