As we head into our second year of trading we wanted to share a little behind the scenes look of how we brought Voxblock to life.
The Beginning of an Idea
Rebecca and Tom sought to pass on their love for audiobooks by trying to find an audiobook player for their daughter. It was a long process of trying the many existing ways of playing audiobooks and yet always finding something not quite right. Inspiration came from their daughter's interest in listening to Rebecca’s old cassette tapes, however their daughter struggled to understand how the cassette player worked, thus the idea for Voxblock began.
Their ideal solution needed to be straightforward enough for their daughter to operate independently, allowing her the freedom to listen at her leisure while preserving the tactile experience of traditional cassette tapes, without the need for a screen or internet connection. Yet, they found the market lacking; nothing they tried fully met these criteria. This realisation, coupled with the understanding that their desires were likely shared by other parents, highlighted a clear gap in the market, prompting them to develop their own solution.
The Early Stages
Drawing inspiration from all the solutions they had previously tried, the first ever versions of the Voxblock player was created in a garage of founders, Tom and Rebecca’s, home and has remained as simple to use as ever. Everything was considered, how the player would look, how you would listen to the audiobook, and how to make the controls as simple as possible without compromising on the features the player could include.
Some of the earliest prototypes designed were created within a cassette tape case but pretty soon after this the first design was created that paved the way towards the design we now sell today. Also deciding to keep the audiobooks tangible allowed for the design to remain screen-free, but also gave the opportunity for customers to collect a library of books to make the interaction with audiobooks even more fun.
The Screen-free Audiobook Player
After a long but exciting journey, the Voxblock screen-free audiobook player was launched. Throughout the journey the main goal was to keep the player simple in order for it to be easy to use by children.
Rebecca and Tom are always looking for ways to improve the player and introduce new features and experiences. Since the players’ launch, we have received some amazing feedback and love seeing our customers enjoying their players.This year we have also introduced an updated version of the player to introduce audio scrubbing so you rewind and fast forward within chapters.
We always love hearing about your Voxblock experience, if you have loved your experience you can leave a review on Trustpilot. Maybe you also didn’t know that we also have a Facebook Community, learn about releases and news first and discuss books and give feedback with other Voxblock customers.
