Challenge
As Twinkly evolved beyond its seasonal origins, the challenge became multifaceted: how to scale an intuitive lighting experience across an expanding hardware ecosystem, a growing community of users, and vastly different environments — from home interiors to architectural landmarks. At its core was a need to abstract technical complexity behind a playful and elegant user experience, one that would delight both casual users and lighting professionals alike.

Twinkly also needed to maintain a clear brand identity as it entered new markets — including retail, entertainment, and commercial installations — while ensuring that every interaction, digital or physical, felt cohesive and on-brand.

Design process
We collaborated closely with Twinkly to lead the redesign of their application experience, combining a premium visual language with user-centred design. Our team at Things conducted extensive user research and behavioural analysis to guide the interface evolution across both digital and physical touchpoints. Leveraging insights from over 1.5 million users, we iteratively refined the application through tailored surveys and hands-on testing, ensuring every design choice was grounded in real feedback and scalable product thinking.

We supported Twinkly in shaping a cohesive and scalable product experience — one that brings technical precision and playful creativity together. Our work focused on refining the mobile app’s UX and UI, simplifying key flows like LED mapping, effect creation, and device management.

We helped translate advanced features into intuitive interactions, ensuring that even complex setups felt accessible to everyday users. As Twinkly expanded its hardware range, we contributed to a flexible interface system that adapts across contexts — from personal spaces to large-scale installations.

Beyond the screen, we also worked on packaging and onboarding touchpoints to deliver a consistent, premium feel throughout the user journey.

Every Twinkly light is individually addressable, and the app uses your smartphone camera to detect their exact position in space. We helped shape this scanning and mapping experience to feel effortless, responsive, and even a little magical. What could have been a technical hurdle becomes a moment of wow, the first step toward building your own immersive lighting canvas.

A true shooting star
Twinkly has earned global recognition as one of the most innovative names in smart decorative lighting. Its products have appeared in major publications and lit up iconic locations — from intimate interiors to retail windows, concert stages, and building façades.

Seen at Harrods, music festivals, and immersive brand activations, the Twinkly experience brings expressive, scalable lighting into spaces of any size. With millions of users and a growing creative community, Twinkly continues to transform light into a medium of performance, presence, and imagination.

Celebrating Continuous Design Evolution
In conclusion, Twinkly has come a long way since its inception as a seasonal Christmas-focused project. Today, Twinkly is a category-defining platform for smart decorative lighting, present in millions of homes and major public installations. Its blend of design, technology, and creativity enables users to personalise light with unprecedented ease. By helping shape the end-to-end experience, we contributed to Twinkly’s evolution into a global brand — one that transforms ambient light into a form of digital expression.

Collaborating with Twinkly meant shaping how people interact with light — not just as decoration, but as a creative tool. We set out to make the experience feel smart, joyful, and ready to scale — from everyday homes to global stages. It’s the kind of impact we aim for: design that feels effortless, yet unlocks something entirely new.