Designing a screen riders can read in one glance, in full sun, while flying over water.
When Marc Newson redesigned the award-winning Flite Controller for the MN Series, he gave it a large, round colour screen. We designed what goes on it.
A rider on an eFoil can't stop and study a screen. They get a glance, maybe two. The first version of the interface tried to say too much. Numbers were small and crowded. Rings borrowed from fitness watches suggested goals to close, but riding isn't a goal. The current gear was hard to spot, and colours bled into each other on the small round display.
How might we give riders speed, gear, charge and time left in a single glance, on a small round screen, without taking their attention off the water?
We took version one apart
Screen by screen, we logged what was hard to read and why.
We rebuilt the grid
Thicker gauge rings stopped colours bleeding together and freed the centre for bigger numbers.
We chose gauges over goals
Riders need to read a level, like a fuel gauge, not track progress to a target. Goal rings were parked for future features.
We made the important things obvious
Gear became a large number. Trigger position became a ball moving around the ring, so riders feel the link between hand and screen.
We took things away
Unlock instructions came off the locked screen. Riders squeeze the trigger while armed instead. Fewer words, just as clear.
We gave waves their own screen
Wave riding is a different kind of riding, so it got its own view instead of competing with distance.
We designed every state, not just the hero screen
Pairing, searching, low battery warnings, motor and controller temperature, limp home, incompatible board, firmware, and a settings menu for speed limit, power and propulsion type.
We tested it where it's used
Prototypes went into the water, alongside firmware QA, before release.
Digital Product Design
Embedded Interface Design
Prototyping & In-Water Testing
The interface launched with the Marc Newson MN Series and kept improving through updates into early 2024.
Released with the MN Series in September 2023, shown at Gagosian in Mayfair.
A 1000-nit OLED colour display with bigger numbers and clearer gauges.
Logs every wave in a session: waves caught, longest wave and distance surfed.
A full library of ride, warning and settings screens, not just the hero view.
Sits alongside the standard Flite Controller interface, which we also designed.
Marc Newson made the hardware beautiful. Our job was to make the screen just as simple to live with. Riders now read what matters in a glance and keep their eyes on the water.
The interface patterns carried forward into Flite's controller family, so new features slot in without starting again.
See the full Flite partnership.
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