Joby One App
Project
Joby One
Client
videndum media
01
Four apps. One tap.
JOBY One unified JOBY's fragmented app ecosystem into a single iOS platform, one app to control motion rigs, lights, and microphones over Bluetooth, wrapped in a design system as playful as the brand. Shipped worldwide on the App Store in 2022.
4 apps consolidated into one
3 hardware categories — motion, lighting, audio — controlled live from one screen
Shipped globally · App Store, Nov 2022
01
THE PROBLEM
Every product shipped its own app
JOBY's smart creator products each arrived with their own companion app: Syrp for the Genie, JOBY Motion for the Spin and Swing, a Wavo PRO utility for the microphone, myJOBY for everything else. A creator running a two-light, one-mic, one-slider setup was juggling four apps mid-shoot — each with its own pairing flow, its own interface conventions, and no awareness of the others.
For the business, the fragmentation was just as costly: four codebases to maintain, four places to ship features, and no single surface to grow services, subscriptions, or the community.
The brief: consolidate everything into one platform — without losing the specialist functionality each app's users depended on, and while making the whole thing feel unmistakably JOBY: playful, confident, fun.
02
Research
Retain the depth, remove the juggling
We ran a research phase that spanned everyone with a stake in the ecosystem: end-users of each legacy app, business stakeholders, engineers who knew where the Bluetooth bodies were buried, and a competitor study across the creator-tool landscape.
What it surfaced:
Power users lived in one device, casual users lived across many. A timelapse specialist knew the Genie app inside out; a YouTuber wanted lights, mic, and slider to just work together. The new IA had to serve deep single-device control and shallow multi-device orchestration without either audience paying for the other.
Mid-shoot context switching was the killer. Leaving a preview screen to adjust a light meant losing your framing. The defining UX requirement became: control every connected device without leaving the capture screen.
The app was also a commercial surface. The consolidation created a single home for the JOBY community, content sharing, and future subscription services — turning a free utility into a platform with a business model.
03
DESIGN DECISIONS
One connection model,
zero modes to learn
A single pairing and device model. Every device — light, mic, motion rig — pairs the same way and lives on one dashboard. Multi-device control happens from the capture screen: adjust a Beamo's brightness or the Wavo's levels while the preview keeps rolling.
Remote-first flexibility. Research showed creators didn't want to abandon their favourite camera apps. So JOBY One also works as a pure remote: drive a Spin or Swing from the app while shooting with the iOS stock camera — or with a GoPro mounted on top. The app orchestrates the hardware; it doesn't take the shot hostage.
Motion control without the learning curve. Setting up a slider move used to mean manuals and trial runs. We reduced it to two taps: set point A, set point B, choose a speed. Timelapse, video, and pan modes share the same mental model.
A playful system for serious tools. Working from JOBY's refreshed brand guidelines and a blank canvas, we built a 100% custom design system, chunky controls, vibrant colour, motion design with personality, that made professional hardware control feel approachable. The system was built for expansion: new products slot in as components, not redesigns.
04
OUTCOMES
Shipped, worldwide
Launched globally on the App Store, November 2022 — free, Photo & Video
Replaced four legacy apps with one platform: Beamo lights, Wavo PRO audio, Spin & Swing motion, plus capture, gallery, and sharing
Covered by imaging trade press at launch as "one tap creative control"
The design system carried the product through post-launch releases and the JOBY Studio platform integration
"Streamline your workflow, capture breathtaking moments and share your creativity effortlessly — all with a single tap." — JOBY launch announcement
05
REFLECTION
Consolidation projects live or die on what you keep. The temptation is to design the beautiful unified thing and let the legacy edge cases fall away — but those edge cases are somebody's whole workflow. The discipline of auditing four apps' functionality before drawing a single screen shaped how I've approached every platform project since: earn simplicity by understanding complexity, not by ignoring it.
