DO8 — 8DOT
In New York City, biking isn't optional — it's daily infrastructure.
- Year
- 2025
- Section
- Concept
- Keywords
- haptic navigation · cycling · nyc
- Role
- Project Lead, Object Design Lead
- Team
- Sky ChengIsaiah SolisSylvia ChenCollin Ho
Guidance you feel, not guidance you stare at.
But navigation tools aren't built for cyclists. DO8 is a product focused only on navigation — guidance you feel, not stare at — by reducing information, not adding features.
How do you navigate while you bike?
Holding a phone means one hand off the handlebar. Looking at a smartwatch means eyes off the road. Navigation apps are visually dense and cognitively demanding — street names, icons, traffic layers, notifications. Instead of supporting awareness, they compete for attention. And in city traffic, even a one-second distraction matters. So the real question becomes: why are cyclists adapting to phone interfaces, instead of navigation adapting to cyclists?
The name comes from connecting the eight direction dots — link them together, connect them, create the path. Simple, playful, inviting — a collective experience.
We first considered a slider mechanism. But while biking, riders wear gloves and hand sizes vary significantly. A linear slider demands precision and consistent finger placement — which becomes unreliable in motion.
Roll up, roll down, press. The button integrates a torsion spring to give clear mechanical feedback, so the rider feels each input without needing to look down. Left and right hands both work.
The full assembly in 3D. Drag to turn it around.
On the road
We aim to create a new way of navigating — one that cares about, and connects you to, the place you want to go.
