Fossil GUIs
Three custom, hardware-tailored smartwatch interfaces
Physical Constraints to Digital Innovation
I believe the best digital experiences are built with an intimate understanding of the hardware they live on. By understanding the interplay between hardware and software, I translated complex technical requirements and constraints into intuitive, device-specific interfaces that push the boundaries of standard UX.
VAPOR
Overview | PROBLEM
After the acquisition by Fossil, Misfit’s desire to create a smartwatch that embodied its core design principles – aesthetic minimalism and elevation of tech towards fashion – stood in direct conflict with the hardware requirements and market UI trends.
I partnered with Engineering to understand and navigate the technical limitations, ultimately utilizing the “dead space” around the screen edge to create a more intuitive and forgiving system-wide touch interface that broke away from standard, linear UI patterns.
Role
Lead UX Designer | Physical Interactions & Navigation
User Flows, Wireframes, Prototyping & Testing, UI Design, Industrial Design
CHALLENGES
Personal: No prior experience designing for circular displays, smartwatch apps, or full GUIs
Marketing: Highlight the new AMOLED display, downplay the large display border
UX: Create a full suite of smartwatch apps with a small UX team
UX: Rethink traditional swipe and crown-twist navigation for a circular display
ID: Visually elevate the “dead space” screen edge, emphasizing it’s functionality
APPROACH
First and foremost was understanding how best to take advantage of the “dead space,” dedicating two months to exploring all possibilities and defining the limits of technical feasibility. After validating the desired touch fidelity, I focused on designing an intuitive interaction system that allowed for both broad and precise control. Mapping the controls typically assigned to rotating crowns to the virtual bezel improved navigation speed and simplified the hardware.
By approaching this effort as a blank canvas with no predetermined operating system to “match,” I was not anchored down by many of the trappings that other early, linear smartwatch GUI’s experienced. This enabled not just a fresh aesthetic approach compared to our competition, but also the immersive circular UX that embraced the form and extended to every aspect of the device.
In order to make the entire interface cohesive and immediately comprehensible, every single app and settings screen was built from scratch to take advantage of the circular display. Before final graphics could be explored and implemented, a consistent framework needed to be established to support all interactions, data/information, and animations any app might support, requiring months of wireframing and testing with Engineering to get right.
IMPACT
After winning 6 “Best of Show” awards at CES 2017 and being touted as a “credible threat” to Android Wear, Google struck a deal to merge the two interfaces to create Wear OS and give Fossil Group creative input on future development. Numerous features – particularly the curved menu navigation – are still defining elements of Wear OS.
“A credible threat to Android Wear”
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KIWI
Overview | OPPORTUNITY
Embrace the strengths and weaknesses of an MIP display to create a “lifelong” smartwatch, in line with Fossil’s traditional watch identity.
Role
Lead UX Designer | Smartwatch Development
Project Management, Cross-Functional Alignment, User Flows, Wireframes, Prototyping & Testing, UI Design, Industrial Design
CHALLENGES
APPROACH
IMPACT
Fossil leadership lauded the engineering-vetted proposal as “essential" to Fossil’s long term success in the smartwatch market. Design of the OS and hardware continued, awaiting formal roadmap commitment, until the project was deprioritized due to bandwidth-hungry issues on existing platforms.
“If we aren’t making this a year from now, we’ve failed.”
DIANA
Focus: Build out a more “affordance-driven” framework for the GUI reimagining.
Outcome: Launched on Fossil’s Gen 6 devices and praised for the more intuitive interface, particularly the adherence to the form and button inputs. (Left Fossil prior to implementation.)
Kiwi
Focus: Embrace the strengths and weaknesses of an MIP display to create a “lifelong” smartwatch, in line with Fossil’s traditional watch identity.
Outcome: Fully vetted by Engineering and lauded by leadership as “essential" to long term success, but deprioritized due to issues on existing platforms.