OUTDOING OURSELVES

The Logitech G502 Wireless Mouse is one of the bestselling PC peripherals of all time, and one of the world’s most popular mice for gaming. But a lot had happened in tech and gaming since its release in 2014, and we wanted to create a version to meet—and even surpass—the needs of today’s users.

A key way we’d distinguish the new G502 X PLUS from its predecessor was with our “signature lighting” strategy. In short, we wanted lighting to drive a memorable product experience distinctive to Logitech G.

More than just an aesthetic overlay, the G502 X PLUS lighting would need to contribute to a cohesive Logitech G peripherals experience, delivering the immersion crucial for gamers. And our methods for bringing the effect to life would need to maximize battery life.

Above all, gamers want to be absorbed in the game—the equipment they use should deepen that sensation, and make it last as long as possible.

THE TRICKY MECHANICS BEHIND A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE

The underlying visual metaphor guiding our design was water—waves and the movement of aquatic life. And our anchor color for Logitech G, cyan, would serve as our foundation, highlighted by hot pink for contrast.

From there, working with these 2 colors, we developed a series of animations inspired by the idea of “supernatural beauty” as found in the iridescence of jellyfish as they move through the sea. To evoke this shimmering quality we leaned into using gradients to “wash” across the mouse in different ways during startup, active mode, and rest mode.

For this to work, we had to test how many LEDs to use and where best to place them on the device. Even a single hot spot could ruin the calm, sweeping effect we wanted to create. And we had to be constantly mindful of energy use—how quickly would the mechanics drain the battery?

PUSHING ALL THE RIGHT BUTTONS

After trying different approaches, we landed on using carefully timed on-off patterns across the LEDs to create the illusion of movement. Not only did this give the most natural results, because of all the downtime—the off moments—the new G502X actually uses up to 40% less power, for longer battery life.

Our startup effect, welcoming gamers to the experience, is essentially a center-out spreading of light, beginning where the 3 lines on the mouse intersect, beginning with cyan and then fading the hot pink in from the left-hand side, where the sniper button is. Like the WASD effect on our Aurora Collection keyboards, we used the pink to highlight parts of the device of significance to gamers.

During use—active mode—the gamer’s hand is covering most of the LEDs, so we decided to incorporate a movement sensor into the mouse to detect when it was being used and signal the device to turn off the LEDs after the mouse has been moving for more than a second. Once the mouse stops moving, presumably when the gamer’s hand is no longer on it, the lights fade back in.

As these effects unfold, the transition point from cyan to hot pink shifts from left to right, giving the impression of breathing, of the mouse almost being a living creature within the waves. After a minute of inactivity, the lighting effect plays in sleep mode for 5 minutes before the lights shut down altogether for deep sleep mode, for the best battery life—and overall experience—for the gamer.