mui Lab Inc. (CEO: Kazunori Oki) is pleased to announce that its HEMS controller, the mui Board, has been selected for the 2025 Good Design Award, presented by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion. The mui Board was recognized for introducing a uniquely warm, wooden informational interface that brings a new togetherness to your daily life through thoughtful design.

HEMS (Home Energy Management System): a system that manages household energy use to promote efficiency and sustainability.

The mui Board is a smart home and HEMS controller crafted from natural wood. It allows users to control IoT appliances such as lighting, air conditioning, and speakers, as well as enable optimal energy management through the visualization of household energy.
Compatible with both Matter and ECHONET Lite smart home standards, the mui Board is supported by the Japanese government subsidies aimed at the Green Transformation(GX) housing. mui Lab collaborates with developers including Mitsubishi Estate, Odakyu Real Estate, Shizuoka Gas, and Hokkaido Gas to promote adoption among homebuilders working toward carbon neutrality.
mui Lab is also developing an AI-based energy management system that learns individual household energy use patterns to optimize solar power, storage batteries, and other devices.

Unlike conventional HEMS controllers, the mui Board uses wood as its interface. It aims to not only be a control panel, but something that creates value through calm, meaningful interactions.

Key ideas to achieve such an experience are as follows.

1.　Integration of warm wood as tactile touch interface
Made from real wood, each mui Board gains character over time like your beloved furniture and home. The wooden interface ages with your touches, remembering all of the stories of your home in its aging wood.

2.　A quiet, harmonious design
Instead of actively notifying and informing the user like industry smart home controllers, the mui Board melts into your home, filtering the noise to only bring you the information you need when you want them.

3.　Gentle smart home features that connect the home
The board connects lighting, audio, and HVAC systems across brands through a unified cloud interface, taking the complexity out of smart home devices and promoting simple and intuitive information design to bring you comfort.

“In a world where everyone has access to information, I think it’s important to think about how we interact with information in our daily lives. Especially for children of the next generation, I wanted to deliver a tool that helps them intuitively handle information. That wish, along with our team, helped us build and rethink living in the information age and create the mui Board. I am truly delighted that our efforts have been recognized in the Good Design awards.

“While most information devices use materials such as glass or acrylic, the use of wood in this product is innovative and remarkable. It departs from the typical high-tech image of smart-home devices and achieves a natural, approachable design. The graphical interface also makes it feel familiar and easy to understand.”

◾️9th Kids Design Award
In August 2025, mui Board and the mui Home App, developed with Odakyu Real Estate, received the Kids Design Award in the “Designs that support raising children” category.

Featured in Odakyu’s LEAFIA homes, it supports well being and good family communication through functions such as Leave-a-message, time capsule, and motion-based room monitoring, offering small moments of connection in everyday life.

◾️“Thank You! Bright Future Award for Couple” (サンキュ！明るいミライ大賞 for couple)
In September 2025, mui Board was selected by the lifestyle magazine Thank You! (“サンキュ！”) as a product that enriches communication between dual working couples and child-rearing parents.