Hocus · Hardware × AI · Concept

A physical starting point for work that runs in parallel.

The project
A self-initiated concept exploring how a physical device can help people focus when work runs in parallel. Hocus is an AI desk companion that turns many open tasks into one clear next step, and makes starting it a physical action.
My role
Product designer across:
  • Strategy
  • Interaction
  • Hardware form
  • Screen UI
  • Visual identity
  • 3D concept
Deliverables
A 3D concept, the screen UI and a workflow demonstration.

Overview

With AI tools, more work now runs in parallel, as different tools handle different tasks at once. In this new way of working, it is easy to lose track of focus, and deciding what comes first matters more than ever.

The problem

For a fast-moving startup founder or a cross-functional freelancer, parallel work quickly becomes overwhelming. Attention splits across tools, agents and deadlines, focus slips at every switch, and tasks get started but not finished.

A person at a desk facing a monitor, with a ring of windows orbiting around them: spreadsheets, a chat thread, a dashboard, documents and a calendar, all lit and all open at once.

Where focus breaks down

Scoping

How might someone move from many parallel tasks to one clear next action, without adding another thing to manage?

I started from the four moments where focus breaks down and weighed three common directions against them, looking for the one that would still help on a busy day of parallel work.

Directions considered

Every direction still lived on the screen that pulls attention away, so each one competed with the distractions it was meant to solve. I wanted to explore how a new gen AI device could address this: a dedicated companion on the desk, separate from the screen, that only holds the next step.

Where else could the next step live?

Stays in viewStarts by handAway from distractionsCan talk it through
Phone app
Sticky notes or paper
Smart speaker
Desk object with a screen

The solution

Meet Hocus: a compact desk companion to choose, start and return to work, with a desktop app holding everything behind it.

Top view of the Hocus dock: a conversational screen reading “Hey there, what should we focus on?” above a dot-matrix timer, with a mode dial set to Focus, a 25-minute timer dial, and a five-button grid.
Close-up of the two machined dials: the mode dial ringed in blue and set to Focus, and the timer dial showing 25 minutes.
The Hocus wordmark in white on a conic gradient running from red through violet into blue.
The Hocus dock seen at an angle, showing the screen, the dot-matrix timer reading 25:00, both dials and the button grid.

What the object needs

A hand turning the Hocus mode dial to Focus, with the screen lit and the dot-matrix timer showing 25:00.
  • A gesture, not a lockTurning the dial and pressing Start make the intention tangible.
  • Next step in viewThe next action stays on the dock, outside your head.
  • Always in reachA dedicated dial and button, not another app to open.

Core workflow

A freelancer moves between a proposal, background research and a client estimate, followed through four moments.

Workflow 1/4

Get the open loops out of your head.

Workflow 2/4

Make starting a physical action.

Workflow 3/4

Park the thought. Keep your focus.

Workflow 4/4

Assist asks before it answers.

Design decisions

What I chose to leave out, so Hocus stays focused on the move into work.

Left outInsteadTrade-off

Policing the day

Blocking every app switch as a failure.

Help people switch on purpose, since some switching is part of work.

Less distraction enforcement

A separate Plan mode

A mode just for planning the day.

Focus, Assist and Park, with priorities set in context.

Not a full planning tool

A phone app

Controls on a second screen.

Setup and review on the desktop, everything else on the dock.

No phone controls at first

A productivity grade

One score for the day.

Progress shown as finished, advanced, parked or resumed.

Fewer simple scores

Refining the form

The hardware moved from a separate screen and controls to one surface: a compact, tactile companion, not another small computer.

Old versions on the left: three earlier Hocus concepts in dark grey and silver with separate screens, blue knobs and a clock display. Final version on the right: one unified slab with the screen, dot-matrix timer, two machined dials and the button grid on a single surface.

Visual identity

One gradient runs through the mark, the app icon and the interface. The hardware stays grey so the colour lands.

A nine-tile brand kit: close-ups of the dials and buttons, the conversational screen in use, the dock seen straight on and at an angle, the Focus, Assist and Park mode pills on a soft gradient, the Hocus wordmark on a conic gradient, the app icon, and a figure working at a laptop lit in the same palette.

The dashboard

A desktop dashboard you do not need to keep open, in four parts: what is happening now, the tasks, the patterns behind them and what was said.

The task on the dock, the time recorded against it, what is waiting on a decision, and the day hour by hour.
The task on the dock, its time, what waits on a decision and the day hour by hour.
Active, parked and completed work, with where each task came from and what moved this week.
Active, parked and completed work, each kept distinct.
Recorded focus time, follow-through on captures, and a week compared with the one before it.
Focus time and follow-through, with every figure showing its total.
What was said, what Hocus wrote, and how long any of it is kept.
Your words, session events and anything Hocus wrote, each shown differently.

How I’d test this

The test shows what the dock brings to a working day: starting with a turn of the dial, keeping the next step in view and returning to work without searching for it.

The Hocus dock at an angle, with the screen, dot-matrix timer, mode dial, timer dial and button grid.
Set-up
The dock beside the same guidance and timer in a desktop window.
People
Freelancers working on their own tasks, not a script.
Length
One week, so the measures reflect daily use, not first impressions.

SuccessFaster starts, sessions held to the end and quicker returns with the dock than with the window.

Reflection

Making an object was harder than designing screens. Getting one dial to feel right took the longest, and it was the part I enjoyed most.

Hands on a laptop keyboard with the Hocus dock open in Blender. The model shows the screen mid-interface, the two dials and the button grid, with the camera and lighting rig listed in the outliner.
The working canvas: dozens of Hocus frames laid out on a dark board, including screen states, dial and button layouts, gradient studies, the app icon, and renders of the dock from several angles.

Parallel work. One next step.

A close angled view of the Hocus dock, its screen showing a listening wave under the question “What should we focus on?”, beside the dot-matrix timer, the two dials and the button grid.