Samsung Gear IconX
As a Senior Interaction Designer working on Samsung's Gear Icon X earbud headphones, I created prototypes, defined touch based interactions, developed the audio UI, and created specifications for lighting feedback. I also collaborated with industrial designers on ergonomic studies of ears.
https://news.samsung.com/global/interview-how-the-gear-iconx-got-its-fitting-design
The Challenge
- Design a truly wireless Bluetooth headphone with heart rate monitoring
As Senior Interaction Designer I...
- Organized hackathon resulting in key insights that helped to inspire this product
- Performed ergonomic, tech and experiential research
- Created audio+touch interaction prototypes in Noodl
- Recorded voice talent
- Created user flow and wireframe documentation
- Shipped Gear Icon X in August 2016
Research
- Studied audiology and participated in a hearing aid evaluation to better understand the process of tuning and fitting earbuds.
Planning
- Introduced a Scrum process to support visibility and tracking.
Software
- To validate and showcase design ideas, I white-boarded interaction concepts and used those to build audio and touch-based interaction prototypes in Noodl. Wit.ai was the preferred speech recognition platform for this prototype although its usage was deprioritized in favor of robust documentation.
Hardware
- Our industrial designers were struggling with the ergonomic fit for the inner ear, so I created several in-ear molds with polycaprolactone, followed by a study of ear gel comfort.
- The in-ear molds and findings informed changes to the hardware design moving forward.