Bloom: Smart Lamp For Long-Distance Connection
Bloom is a smart ambient lamp that glows when someone you love far away is home. I designed and built the project end-to-end, covering embedded electronics, Arduino firmware, cloud connectivity, and product packaging and brand identity.
People behind
Eylul Yildirim (Designer+Dev)
Sudhu Tewari (Mentor)
Toolbox
Figma
Figma Motion
Arduino IDE
Claude Code
Rhino
Bambu Lab
Photoshop
The Problem: Staying Close Is a Chore
My friends and family are far away. Staying connected is logistically demanding. Coordinating calls turns connection into obligation, reducing what should be a living relationship into a scheduled task.
Why Light: An Ambient Signal
People prefer ambient and intuitive ways of feeling connection to people. For Bloom, I focused on light as a source of information signal because it can so naturally fit into our personal spaces, it does not need any oversight, and it looks very therapeutic too.
How It Works: Device to Cloud to Glow
This diagram shows how devices are connected to the internet, and what drives Bloom's functionality in the backend.
Blooming Interface: A Shared Room, Reimagined
The interface is a re-imagined room where you are with people who matter to you. Bloom makes it easier to feel in the same room as your family, partner or friends.
Brand: Simplicity for Intimacy
Bloom is for sensing the human connection, and it does this without creating an extra step, a complicated interface or cognitive overhead. It reflects simplicity for intimacy.
What I Learned: Failure, Focus & Gratitude
Doing this project has taught me a lot! Firstly, failure is a humbling experience. I had to learn this when my 3D print failed 4 times. Secondly, users I tested with expressed enthusiasm in products with one functionality only. People developed feature fatigue and they seemed to quietly enjoy a monochrome interface with ridiculous doodles on it. Lastly, I'm super grateful to everyone who helped me in this project, you made it so special ❤️
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