Deliberately simple
An all-black, tilted cube, with stereo speakers pointing left and right. A slot on top, the width of a card. Across the tilted face, a sparse matrix of classic red LEDs: it responds to whatever the box is playing, and in party mode the microphone turns music in the room into light. A rechargeable battery means there is no cord — the box sits on a kitchen counter, a bedside table, wherever you want it.
A tiny physical app
Each SOOOT Card is a tiny physical app. Slide one in and it starts. Pull it out and it stops. The card itself is durable, recyclable playing-card stock with a die-cut pattern of holes: no electronics, no plastic figurines, no NFC chips. And it does the same thing every time — no list to scroll, no menu to open. One card is a soundscape, another a podcast, another the radio. One arms the built-in motion sensor, so sound welcomes you when you step into the room. Insert several SOOOT Cards together and their functions combine: 30 minutes and ×4 becomes the timer for the stretch-and-folds of my sourdough.
Make it yours
Write on them, draw on them, label them, collect them. A small stack lives by the bed, another in the kitchen. Blank cards come undecorated on purpose: put your own sounds on one, a favourite station on another, or make one that dims the lights. Use the SOOOT App to set things up or change what a card does. Then put the screen away. The holes form a pattern you can feel, and the whole interaction happens in your hands. We made SOOOT simple and playful, leaving room for ideas we haven't imagined yet. At Dutch Design Week, pick a card, slide it in and find out what it does. Just apps made of paper.
