Community Seating Arrangement

Bringing Community Interaction to Life: “Musical Chairs” Speaking-System Prototype

At Haloxion, we often get to work on ideas that combine creativity with meaningful real-world use. This project was one of them. A client approached us with an interesting concept:

they wanted to design a seating installation for parks where community members—especially senior citizens—could gather, sit together, and take turns speaking. The challenge was to create a fair, simple, and engaging system that would randomly select one person as the speaker.

The goal wasn’t to build a game—it was to encourage conversation, connection, and participation. Our role was to transform this idea into a functional physical prototype using electronics.

Understanding the Client’s Vision

The client had already conceptualized a circular seating layout. Each seat represented a participant. What they needed was a system that:

• Randomly selected one seat at a time
• Gave a clear visual cue to identify the selected participant
• Could restart easily for each new discussion round
• Worked reliably outdoors or in public spaces
• Stayed simple and approachable for all age groups

This meant the solution had to be tactile, intuitive, and free of screens or complex inputs.

Our Approach to Finding the Right Solution

We began by focusing on how people would interact with the installation. The experience needed to feel natural:

1. A recognizable sequence

   To build anticipation, we designed a pattern where the seat indicators (represented by LEDs in the prototype) light up one by one before settling on the chosen participant.

2. Random and unbiased selection

   The selection process needed to feel fair, so we introduced a randomization phase that runs for a variable number of cycles.

3. Simple user control

   A single button allowed the host or group to start or restart the selection round—keeping the interaction effortless for seniors as well.

4. Prototype-first thinking

   Instead of building a full final product, we created a small but complete electronic prototype to validate the concept before the client moved into product development and physical fabrication.

Building the Prototype

We created a compact electronic system that represented each seat with an LED. A microcontroller controlled the sequencing, random selection, and restart logic. The prototype allowed us—and the client—to test how the interaction would feel in a real environment.

Even though the prototype was simple, it captured the core experience:

• Lights cycle around the “chairs”
• After a moment, one is randomly chosen
• That seat’s indicator stays lit
• The flow restarts at the press of a button

This gave the client a tangible model they could use for testing, presenting, and refining the overall installation design.

The Result

The finished prototype successfully demonstrated the entire interaction flow of the community seating idea. It offered:

• A clear, fair way to select a speaker
• An engaging light sequence to build anticipation
• A simple, single-button interface
• A system that could be scaled into larger physical installations

For the client, this prototype became a crucial step in evaluating how the concept could function in public spaces.

Why This Matters

Projects like this highlight what we do at Haloxion:

turning thoughtful ideas into real, testable prototypes that help clients move closer to their final product vision.

Whether it’s for community engagement, public installations, or creative interaction systems, we help bring concepts to life through electronics and design.

If you’re exploring a similar idea or want to prototype a unique interactive system, we’d be excited to help.