Part 1: A Journey Back to Hardware with M5Dial

As someone who's always been passionate about the physical world, tinkering with hardware was where my love for technology truly began. Before web and app design consumed my time, I loved taking things apart to understand how they worked. It’s this deep-rooted passion that first drew me to computers. Recently, that drive to connect the digital with the physical re-ignited as I began exploring hardware UI design, particularly with the M5Dial.

In this first post of a three-part series, I want to share how diving back into hardware design, beyond screens and code, has helped me reconnect with the foundational skills I’ve always loved—working with my hands and crafting something tangible. This series will document my experience setting up the M5Dial, my challenges, and how I built user interfaces that respond to physical inputs. For anyone who shares that desire to bridge the digital and physical, this journey might resonate with you.

The Return to Hardware: The Appeal of the Physical Interface

My career has revolved around software—designing slick, intuitive web and mobile interfaces where users tap, click, and swipe to interact. But for me, there has always been a magnetic pull toward hardware, back to that sense of creation that comes with working on something you can touch and feel. The M5Dial offered a perfect platform to blend my deep knowledge of software design with my love for physical interfaces. Here was a device that required code and creativity in equal measure—a true hardware/software symbiosis.

However, working with hardware like the M5Dial isn’t just a matter of porting UI design from software to the physical world. There are unique constraints and opportunities that push you to think differently.