Smartwatch
\\ Our team assisted a legacy watchmaker’s initiative to diversify and future-proof their business to keep up with the smartwatch industry.
We brought value to a high-end luxury digital watch scheduled to ship with a stock version of Android Wear. We designed three microapps and a marketing website. Based on our research findings, our team also delivered a complete end-to-end custom experience and 3rd party ecosystem.
My Role
Interaction Designer
Team Composition
Design Director, Tech Director, Project Manager, 3 Interaction Designers, 3 Visual Designers, 2 Content Designers, 3 Production Designers, VR Designer, Motion Designer, 3 QA, 5 Developers, 2 Back-End Architects
Approach
Research what luxury means to the client's customer base and then iterate on a unique version of Android Wear that matches consumer expectations.
Usher users from mechanical timepieces to a digital experience
For the timer, alarm, and stopwatch microapps, I endeavored to fuse two decidedly different focal points. This design would bring together the elegance of a mechanical timepiece and ease-of-use of a smartwatch.
Problem
Our client wanted something fresh but still spoke to their past. They wanted something exclusive, custom, distinctive, and adhered to their luxury legacy. Our research confirmed this as potential customers fancied themselves both early-adopters and admirers of craftsmanship.
Solution
I set out to tackle a once-in-a-lifetime interaction problem that fit into a 320 x 320 pixel circle. I examined dozens of patterns found in traditional mechanical watches. From the elegantly minimal to the remarkably complicated, I created countless designs that might bridge the divide between luxury, usability, and the watch’s native OS before landing on the designs below.
Final wireframes and flows for the alarm microapp. The approach for this app was straightforward, follow previously established watch patterns. Instead of setting the alarm with a crown on the side, allow users to manipulate the watch hands directly. The top flows take the user through the setup of an alarm, while the bottom flow shows the notification of the alarm.
Conceptually, we wanted to reinforce nostalgia while still being usable. Concentric rotating circles placed in the background that zoom in and out to emphasize the user-chosen time segment. The top flows show the standard set up, the notifications, and the flow for voice operation.
I again looked at well established horological patterns for inspiration when designing the Stopwatch.
Extend the experience into watch faces and themes
We stretched the scope beyond the three microapps to fashion a complete end-to-end luxury experience. We connected watch faces to microapps through the use of digital counters and then pushed the potential of these small informational windows into watch faces and themes.
Problem
While listening to consumers, learning the platform, and designing microapps, we noticed the opportunity to expand the experience beyond the buried microapps to a more custom watch face experience. How could we make the watch more unique and usable? How might we create an even more valuable and closer connection between the watch and the human wearing it?
Solution
We designed and built a night mode. We saw that our users self-identified with sports, luxury brands, and other brand communities, so I led pushed to develop themes. Our team saw the potential in taking the "complication" spaces as a way to surface more modern digital information. When the first theme of digital complications was not going to be ready by the time the watch shipped, I proposed an added default theme and watch face called the Time Keeper Theme.
From our research, we noticed the strong relationships potential customers had to their passions. I built these diagrams to understand who our users are and what kind of communities would be relevant to pull into future themes.
The Time Keeper Theme I proposed and mentioned above. A pretty simple concept that was focused mainly on promoting our idea of themes and introducing the pattern of counter windows as shortcuts to microapps.
I created this diagram as a definition between what constituted a watch face and what constituted a microapp. There was some confusion within the team as many physical watch face designs are timers, alarms, or chronographs.
Night mode was of particular interest to me. I considered the aversion of having to plug in your watch every night a strange complaint and a potential area for design. This diagram shows the flow of three different types of night mode.
These wireframe designs show how a user could easily switch themes as they become available. These are just two of the interactions styles I proposed to the team.
Pretty neat to see your ideas and work being blasted on Instagram!
Create indefinite user value beyond the watch
I analyzed patterns from the horological world of complications. I then created a pattern library and design guide for future partners to contribute themes and microapps but maintain quality and consistency.
Problem
Our team proposed an entire content structure that saw the watch as a singular, luxurious point-of-entry into a much larger ecosystem. Part of this system would be a curated set of content providers, curated 3rd party software integrations, and a never-ending "build your legacy" platform. However, these partners did not have an integration method that quickly allowed them to build and blend into the ecosystem.
Solution
I recognized the need for a pattern library and model for future partners as they joined our client. I defined the different styles of complications, how they could work, and what kind of content they could hold. I proposed theme sets of complications as examples of potential directions. This work positioned the client for better and more exciting watch faces and apps.
This was an early catalog of possible patterns that could live inside a counter window.
I then moved to categorize these counters into more functional classifications.
This is one of eleven different theme examples I built out to explore how users could integrate the pattern library I created into their designs.
This is a sample of the pattern variations I defined. It shows how different elements could be mixed and combined.
This was a catalog of patterns a theme could use to build a watch face-level design.
Goals & Outcome
The watchmaker sold 85k watches over the 15k expected, becoming the client’s best selling watch ever. Within six months, our team delivered a custom version of the watch’s operating system, a fully responsive product launch website, two companion mobile apps, and designs for an entirely new and personalized customer engagement channel.
“...the most polished Android Wear we’ve ever seen.”
Main Stakeholder
“In 6 months, the team worked with a client new to software development and in partnerships with [big tech companies]. Despite hardware limitations, we built a competitive product containing never before seen features.”
Studio Leadership
