CUBX

Overview

Both the Rubik's cube and the Tangram are physical objects. People interact with them through spatial, tactile manipulation: rotating layers, sliding and placing pieces, reasoning in three dimensions with their hands. The design challenge for CUBX was not how to build a puzzle app. It was how to translate physical interaction mechanics into a touch interface that preserves what makes those objects satisfying to use in the first place.

Process

Starting with the physical interaction

I started by studying what makes each puzzle work as a physical object. The Rubik's cube gives you rotation: constrained, directional movement with clear mechanical feedback. Tangram gives you placement: spatial reasoning about shape and fit. Both rely on the hands understanding something before the brain does. The design question was: which parts of those mechanics survive the translation to a flat touchscreen, and which fall apart?

Prototyping in physical space first

Before opening Xcode, I built prototypes out of paper and scissors. This wasn't a shortcut. It was the only way to test whether the interaction model made sense without the noise of implementation. The paper version let me feel where the mechanic broke down and what needed to be redesigned before committing it to code. The final interaction model came out of that physical prototyping phase, not from the screen.

Designing the feedback layer

Touch alone wasn't enough. A Rubik's cube gives you tactile resistance, a click when a layer locks, the sound of plastic on plastic. Without that, the digital version would feel hollow. So I designed a haptic and audio feedback system specifically tuned to mimic the physical device: the haptic pattern on rotation mimics the mechanical resistance of a cube layer, and the sound design was built to evoke the feel of a real puzzle piece snapping into place. The goal wasn't to replicate the object. It was to make the touch interface carry the same emotional weight as holding the physical thing.

User testing session

Testing the feedback loop

Over ten days I built and tested the playground with people who had never heard of it: colleagues, strangers, anyone I could get in front of. What I was watching for wasn't whether they could complete the puzzle. It was whether the haptics and audio landed, whether the rotation felt constrained in the right way, whether placing a piece gave enough feedback to feel satisfying. The scholarship was the outcome. Understanding how physical interaction translates to digital was the real learning.

Impact

Won Apple WWDC19 Scholarship among thousands of applicants worldwide, built in 10 days. The project required designing not just the visual interface but the full sensory feedback layer: haptics and audio tuned to mimic the feel of physical puzzle mechanics. That question of how physical interaction translates into digital sensation has shaped how I think about experience design ever since.

In the media

Watch the process video→