BEHRINGER WING & X32
Product Design / Hardware
·
2019
ROLE
UI Designer: sole on X32, one of two on WING
TEAM
~5 engineers · 1 product manager
TIMELINE
Dec 2018 – Jul 2019
OUTCOME
Shipped in X32 firmware 4.0; WING launched with my icons and effect graphics
The X32 is a digital mixing console used by live-sound engineers, and its firmware hadn't had a major update in years. With the new WING console in development, the product manager asked me to redesign the X32 interface while contributing to WING's visual system.
the challenge
Live-sound engineers work under time pressure, and a misread screen can be heard by the whole audience. The redesign had to work within four constraints:
Hardware limits: an 800×480 display without GPU rendering, an indexed 64-colour palette and tiny channel LCDs where standard icons became illegible.
Rigid routing: inputs and outputs could only be patched in blocks of 8 channels, the change sound engineers requested most.
Legibility at a glance: every screen had to be readable in dark venues and in a split second.
One visual language for WING: icons had to work on both a high-resolution touchscreen and low-resolution channel displays, following the style already set by the project's lead designer.
Design goal: make a dense, technical interface faster to read and routing easier to set up, without any change to the hardware.
How I worked. I validated every screen with the engineers and tested it on a physical prototype, to check how colours and elements behaved on the real displays.
What I designed:
Point-to-point routing: I designed from scratch a patching screen where any single input or output can be assigned individually, alongside the existing block view. I shaped it with the sound engineer, the product manager and an external consultant.
A clearer X32 interface: I redesigned the screens one by one for stronger hierarchy and legibility, working in an indexed 64-colour workflow in Photoshop so every asset rendered without lag.
WING icon library: icons from 24 to 60px, refined pixel by pixel to stay legible and consistent across display sizes.
WING effect graphics: the visuals for the console's effects library.
conclusion
The results come from the launches, which happened after I left:
X32 firmware 4.0 (November 2019) shipped the redesigned interface and point-to-point user routing. Coverage of the release highlighted the new routing and an interface that is easier to see and read.
WING debuted at NAMM in January 2020 with my icon library and effect graphics.
Reflection. With today's experience, I'd push further on contrast, type legibility and the way elements are grouped, bringing stronger UX thinking to what was mainly a visual redesign.