If you like what you see, I'd love to connect! I just joined Bluesky, and I'd like to share more about my journey building a hardware business next to my full time job. Check my website and give me your thoughts 🙏 hansker.design
Hansker vertical mouse prototype seen from the front-left view, laying on top of a light wooden box sitting next to the window.
So that's why I created "a product that already exists". Because the fact that something exists, doesn't mean that it has reached its best form.
And in fact, it’s mostly a positive thing. When a new restaurant opens up in your neighborhood, it forces the competitors around it to deliver better quality products & service, which ends up benefitting the customer.
People began asking me: doesn’t that product already exist? And that's a fair question, but the fact that a product exists doesn’t mean that it has reached its best form. In fact, I love when new brands enter in markets that are not too crowded yet. Think about electric bikes for example.
So I began sketching, looking for the right freelancers, finding a manufacturer and creating a brand. Without realizing, I had spent already months in the project.
Desk setup featuring a split mechanical keyboard and a Hansker vertical mouse (prototype version). Notebook with product drawings, 3D printed Hansker mouse prototypes.
After doing lots of research about hardware manufacturing, I thought: why not create an ergonomic mouse myself? One that is not only comfortable, but also looks great on my desk and has a good sensor and great components. One that UX designers like me would love.
However, there was something that kept bothering me: the mouse I was using back then had poor aesthetics and components of pretty bad quality. In general, it was a mediocre product.
A few years ago I started using an ergonomic mouse for the first time. At first it felt weird, but after a few hours I couldn’t go back to a regular mouse.
Hansker Vertical mouse prototype seen from the left side. Laying on top of a marble chessboard
After being laid off, I spent 2 years developing "a product that already exists" – Here’s the short story 👇