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.