Interview about Project XYLO Midi Device, winner of the A' Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design Award 2025
Project Xylo reimagines midi interaction through a gamified, social platform for music making. Accessible to all skill levels, it simplifies beat creation with harmonic and tempo sync. Swappable cartridges and snap together devices support collaboration, while a retro, modular design enhances usability and style. Project Xylo is a series of portable midi devices designed for everyday music creation, offered in three sizes: sample, pocket, and midi.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsProject XYLO was conceptualized to democratize music creation by bridging the structured world of MIDI with the intuitive, playful nature of gaming. The journey began with a desire to make music-making less intimidating—transforming what is often seen as a technical or niche skill into something engaging and accessible for users of all levels.Drawing inspiration from retro handheld consoles and rhythm-based games, the design introduces familiar interaction patterns—such as swappable cartridges, element-based controls, and portable form factors—that help lower the learning curve. The integration of harmonic and tempo consonance provides users with immediate musical feedback, allowing them to create coherent sounds without prior training. This fusion of gaming and music creation formed the foundation of XYLO: a series of tools that simplify beat-making while encouraging experimentation, collaboration, and joyful learning.
I’ve always been a huge fan of old handheld consoles—their portability and ability to transform any moment into a fully immersive experience left a strong impression on me. The sense of being “in the zone,” wherever you were, became central to XYLO’s design. The semi-transparent shell and Game Boy-inspired aesthetic pay homage to that era, creating an immediate emotional and visual link to classic gaming.The fusion of MIDI functionality with the visual language of handheld consoles was also inspired by the educational rhythm games I grew up with—particularly titles like Rhythm Heaven. These games simplified complex timing and musical ideas into tactile, joyful experiences. By echoing that form factor and nostalgia, XYLO not only spoke out design language visually, but also lowers the intimidation barrier, making music-making feel playful, accessible, and deeply personal.
The swappable cartridges concept was envisioned through a mix of nostalgic practices—drawing from the “burning” culture of the disk era and the “sharing and renting” habits common in the early retro gaming era.With XYLO, my aim for the cartridges is to let users share not just finished tracks, but the actual components that build music: a beat, a rhythm pattern, a timbre, a melody line. Each cartridge holds a unique piece of the musical puzzle. Some carts also contain user-customized instruments, “burned” and fine-tuned like collectible assets, echoing the spirit and physicality of music socializing.
The harmonic and tempo synchronization are designed to create a forgiving and musically intelligent environment where users can focus on creativity rather than technical precision.Harmonic synchronization ensures that notes and chords remain musically compatible, reducing the chances of dissonance and allowing users to explore melodies freely without needing deep theoretical knowledge. Tempo synchronization aligns rhythmic elements across devices and tracks, making it easier to build cohesive beats and collaborate in real time. These provide the basic foundation for zero-experience beginners, giving them the space and building blocks of music composition.By having these musical safeguards into the system, XYLO helps novices to produce satisfying, harmonious results from the very beginning, lowering the learning curve and making the creative process more enjoyable and inclusive.
Facing challenges beyond my technical expertise encouraged me to take a broader, more strategic view—focusing on the core design objectives first, before refining the details.I intentionally concentrated on areas where I had stronger control, particularly in CMF, visual, and interaction design, while leaving ample hardware redundancy. This ensured that iterative software development wouldn’t be hindered by premature hardware integration. That’s why, even after building an initial integrated version, I continued working with modular development boards—acknowledging the limitations of the early prototype and prioritizing flexibility in later stages.This approach gave me the time, capability, and hardware compatibility necessary to ensure a stable and functional software environment.
The three-size format of Project XYLO—Sample, Pocket, and MIDI—was developed to address varying levels of musical engagement and user expertise. The Sample version was inspired by the design language of classic MP3 players, aiming to offer a seamless, almost invisible tech experience that focuses on spontaneous sound exploration. The Pocket version draws directly from handheld gaming devices, balancing portability with playful interaction, ideal for casual beat-making on the go. The MIDI model, while still compact, is intended to offer greater functionality and a more professional language—bridging the gap between portability and advanced creative control.Together, the three devices represent a gradual progression in complexity and creative depth—from intuitive, single-sound manipulation to full-featured music production. This modular approach not only accommodates different user needs and scenarios but also reflects a natural learning curve, encouraging users to grow their musical skills within the same design ecosystem.
In my research, categorizing sound into SFX, beats, chords, and melodies helped define how users should physically interact with each musical element.For XYLO’s three devices, I aligned distinct interaction methods—buttons, sliders, knobs, pressure pads, recording input, cartridge insertion, and more—to match the character of each sound type. For example, pitch-sensitive elements like melodies benefit from continuous, pressure-based input, while beats respond better to velocity-sensitive button pads.This systematic pairing of input and sound type was crucial in making each musical component feel intuitive and expressive. In XYLO, controls are also designed to work in combination—for instance, adjusting timbre with a slider while modulating wah effects with a pressure pad. Each element of music can be shaped through physical touch in the ideal natural way, encouraging real-time creativity and deeper engagement.
As mentioned earlier, the shift from ESP32 to Raspberry Pi Zero was driven by the need for greater development flexibility and to address hardware limitations encountered during prototyping. I had developed a custom ESP32 integrated board, but its performance proved less stable than expected and required significant time for optimization—time that could be better spent refining the user experience.Switching to Raspberry Pi Zero allowed for smoother graphical output, a more accessible game development environment (GODOT), and more headroom for future software updates. This pivot ultimately enhanced the system's responsiveness, scalability, and long-term adaptability—improving both the functionality and overall experience of using XYLO.
Personally, I don’t see Project XYLO as departing from traditional MIDI, but rather as simplifying and refining its core purpose—making music creation more intuitive and approachable. While some existing products aim to lower the entry barrier, many still lean toward professional users or enthusiasts. With XYLO, I wanted to explore how game-like interaction and social sharing could help absolute beginners experience the joy of making music.In terms of influence, I believe the future of music tools may lie in combining MIDI functionality with interaction models that feel familiar to a wider audience. For XYLO, that meant drawing from the language of retro game consoles—something many people have a shared memory of. There is already a growing trend where portable, accessible tools take on forms and behaviors that feel playful and culturally resonant, helping more people take their first step into music creation without intimidation.
Art and design are universal languages spoken by humanity.I see every design as a sentence—and every component, interaction, or visual cue as a word. To speak clearly and meaningfully through design, we must understand the existing vocabulary: familiar objects, cultural references, and intuitive behaviors. With Project XYLO, I didn’t invent a new language—I borrowed well-known "words" from retro gaming and music culture and rearranged them to form something new and accessible.My advice to aspiring designers is this: don’t be afraid to reference what already exists. Innovation isn’t about abandoning the past—it’s about using it thoughtfully, like grammar, to construct new experiences. Build on what people already understand, and then add your own voice to make it meaningful. A good design doesn’t just innovate—it functions, communicates, invites, connects, and only then, truly innovates.
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