Traktor Kontrol S8 is Native Instrument’s flagship music performance controller including a 4-channel stand-alone mixer, a professional audio interface, and two decks with high-res displays. As the design lead for this project, I guided the design efforts but also was hands-on involved in all phases of the project from research, design, development and manufacturing.
All-in-one DJ Controller
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Company
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Responsibilities
Ideation, User and Market Research, UX Design, Industrial Design, Packaging Design, Product Development, CMF Design, Production and Quality Control
Design Challenge
The KONTROL S8 combines the functionality of many devices in one singular controller, presenting many unique design challenges.
I had to come up with a modular system to accommodate the complex hardware architecture (which included stacked up PCBs for the sound card, processor, and variable-height components) while maintaining a compact and sleek profile.
Role & Responsibilities
As the design lead, I was responsible for the entire design and product development of this effort. From ideation, concept generation, user and market research as well as facilitating design workshops with the design group to define the new design language. Collaborating closely with hardware engineering and understanding their constraints was key to our success. Further responsibilities included prototyping and testing, UX design, industrial design and CMF design of this series. I was the main design contact for our suppliers and manufacturing partners overseas to negotiate and collaborate on quality control to run mass-production smoothly.
