Polar Designer

UX GIRL with EMBIQ created a refreshed version of Polar Designer audio plugin. Polar Designer is a post-production audio editing plugin that allows for effortless manipulation of sound, precise control, and enhanced audio effects.

Polar designer is an audio plugin that is designed to aid in visualizing or adjusting polar patterns of microphones, which can impact how the microphone captures sound from different directions. Audio plugins are used by audio engineers and producers to optimize microphone placement and performance in various recording or sound reinforcement scenarios.

The aim of our cooperation was to enhance the visual look of the audio plugin to match the new refreshed brand of Austrian Audio. A while ago Austrian Audio recognized a need in renewing their brand in the eyes of the users of their microphones and other audio equipment. Apart from selling hardware, Austrian Audio develops also software, that help users with production or post production of audio. Our client saw that the plugins did not match their new vision and asked us to create a design system that can be placed on their plugins. Polar Designer was our starting point, as it encompassed many complex components and functions. After researching the current brand we came up with a design direction for the plugins, that was endorsed by the Austrian Audio team.

While designing the new look and feel we audited all of the plugins functions and came to a conclusion that the more complex ones - AI Terminator functions were not easy to use for a first time user, but also posed a problem for returning users. We proposed a significantly different flow for this function with focus being placed on communication with the user using small “terminator-like” commands e.g. “Playback spill”. We did it because it came to our knowledge that the function was inspired by the Terminator from the movie of the same title. The improved flow received high praise from the client team and audio engineers who tested it.

Ultimately, we delivered a complete design that was then flawlessly translated to a working product thanks to JUCE component library made especially for audio and C++ language. The audio plugin Polar Designer works atop any Digital Audio Workstation “DAW” app on desktop on all important platforms including Windows and Mac OS.