Hardware
Emoji Keypad
Custom keypad delivering emoji input natively on both Windows and macOS.
DisciplinesHardware
Our roleDesign, build, release
Technologies
USB HIDFirmwarePCB designKey matrixCross-platform
EM
Emoji Keypad
The challenge
What was in the way.
Emoji Keypad needed hardware work delivered as one system rather than split across vendors — custom keypad delivering emoji input natively on both Windows and macOS.
Disciplines in scope
HardwareIn scope
Firmware / IoT—
AI / ML—
Web & mobile—
How we built it.
We restated the brief as constraints — power, latency, cost, compliance — and named the ones that conflicted. A working slice through the riskiest layer was signed off first, then built out in two-week increments with one demo each, reviewed against the same engineering standard across hardware and software.
01Technical discovery
02Architecture & prototype
03Build & iterate
04Deploy & hand over
USB HID programming
Firmware development
PCB design
01Shipped
Delivered to production and still maintained by the team that built it.02Tested
One test matrix across hardware, firmware and interface — no gaps between layers.03Documented
Runbooks, monitoring and escalation handed over with the system.04Scaled
Grew with usage without re-architecture or a second rebuild.