HALO COMPUTER MOUSE
Fall 2025
The Halo Computer Mouse is a sleek and stylish ergonomic mouse for people who need a mouse that’s comfortable to use for hours, but aren’t interested in the angular and aggressive designs of computer mice designed for gamers. More minimalist mice on the market are usually a much lower profile, like the Apple Magic Mouse or Logitech Pebble, which makes them easier to travel with and store. But flatter mice like these don’t integrate well with the arch of the user’s hand, and result in wrist strain over long periods of use. If the user were to invest in a mouse with a more ergonomic higher arch and comfortable thumb indents, they would be leaving behind the sleek aesthetic of these lower profile mice.
Consumers shouldn’t have to sacrifice aesthetics for comfort, or the other way around.
The Halo Computer Mouse solves this problem by featuring a comfortable ergonomic design that is shaped to the natural arch of a user’s hand, thumb indents and a hole through the middle that make it easier to pick up and control, and transparent top shell. These features allow users to keep the interesting and innovative material and form elements of iconic products like the Apple Hockey Puck Mouse and other Y2K inventions - who’s aesthetics are making a comeback with design brands like Nothing - while being just as comfortable as a gamer mouse designed for long term and extensive use.
PROCESS
MARKET RESEARCH
DESIGN OPPORTUNITY
I started this project with market research to find a gap to fill in the market. I immediately noticed how much users liked the aesthetics of the computer mice that were the least comfortable, and that the mice that were noted as the least comfortable tended to have the flattest profiles.
Design a comfortable, high profile, aesthetically appealing computer mouse to fill the gap in the industry.
FORM EXPLORATION
A concept I was really interested in exploring was having a hole cut through the mouse. Because of the high profile, there would be space, and I was really interested in exploring this donut-like shape that I saw popping up in a lot of products recently. I also wanted to keep the form fairly rounded and smooth, but I experimented a lot with the dimensions , as well as the exact surfacing of the mouse in my 3D models that I printed to user test.
USER TESTING
While there was a minority of users who found the hole in the mouse distracting, most users found the high I tested multiple different forms with a wide variety of users with different hand sizes and mouse preferences, and while there was a small minority of users who found the hole in the mouse distracting and the arch to be too higher, the majority of users thought the higher profile was much more comfortable and the hole was a fun and useful addition. I had to pick and choose what user feedback to take into account when developing the form because computer mice are such a widely used product, it’s impossible to design for everyone’s preferences, and some users are bound to dislike it. A lot of the users who disliked the hole were gamers who held their computer mice in a claw-like grip, or people who held their mice very far back.
Ultimately I decided that my target user, people who valued unique and modern aesthetics and preferred higher profile mice and were not gamers, would find this final form comfortable for them.
INTERIOR ELECTRONICS
I really wanted to push myself to make design a mouse that could be fully manufactured, so I bought a TeckNet rechargable mouse to model my interior electronics after. I 3D modeled the circuit board to scale so I could determine the structures the bottom shell would need to include to properly hold the circuit board in place. I also referenced how all the pieces of the shell would fit together to use the least amount of material to create a functioning mouse.
FINAL DESIGN
CMF
For the CMF options I chose to keep the default options white, as most computer mice on the market are black, so that’s another gap this product can fill in the market. While I love the translucent options, I also wanted to provide an opaque option for something more standard and professional. Because a lot of my target audience are creatives, I provided two colorful options ispired by Y2K color schemes that also have more translucent shells so you can see more of the intricate interiors.
EXPLODED VIEW
Because of the hole in the mouse, the mouse would have to be manufactured in four main parts, the top shell, the middle shell with the hole that needs to injection molded in two halves, and the bottom. The top and bottom shells screw together, and the ridges hold the two parts of the middle shell together. The screw holes are covered by the rubber feet that get stuck onto the mouse at the end.
The profile of the mouse is much more ergonomic and intuitive than traditional office computer mice. Unlike the perfectly symmetrical front to back shapes of these flat mice, the orientation of this mouse is intuitive, and a user can quickly orient it in their hand without thinking. The hole and high profile also make the mouse easier to grab and pick up, and it takes less effort and pressure to move around on a table.
MATERIALITY
While all parts of the shell are made of plastic, I wanted the top shell to be a lot smoother than the sides of the mouse because your figures need to slide around to click and scroll, but your grip on the sides of the mouse should be firm. So I made sure the middle shell pieces were more of a textured plastic than the top shell