earbuds+UI-static.png

Earbuds For Productivity

Minimize office distractions to help productivity & focus

The Intention

With the product invention lab, Handmade, I was asked to help accelerate the hardware and software UX experience for a wireless earbud product. Yet to differentiate itself from other products on the market, the aim was for it to be oriented towards office and productivity environments.

Part of the task was to create new features for the hardware UX + companion app. How could we find creative ways for through an audio experience to keep people physically moving and be less distracted when they work? As Principal Product Designer, I worked with the Design Lead to tag-team creating and building out UX experiences.

My Role

Principal Product Designer
Visual Design
UX / UI Design
Animation

Extra Credit

Handmade – Amsterdam
René van de Hulsbeek – Product Design Lead and UX Design

Physical Interactions Video Overview:

Considerate Design

New Feature Development

Illustration showing a person putting on a hearing aid, with arrows indicating insertion into the ear.

Natural Interactions

  • Use “natural behaviors” to trigger interactions

  • Trigger IoT devices with customized actions

Line drawing of a person holding a phone with a brain-shaped head, with an arrow indicating a tilt.

Wellness at Work

  • Subtle audio nudges to stretch and get moving

  • Integrated calendar for agenda coaching

  • Heart-rate monitoring to watch stress

Icon of a laptop and a picture with a sun and mountains, with the text "Do Not Disturb" and a note about creating presets to help get into the zone.

Focused Concentration

  • Pomodoro Technique
    (time-boxing)

  • Do-Not-Disturb batched notifications for the office

  • Simplified music browsing

Blue circular interface showing 80% earbuds and 20% magnetic clip, with a button labeled 'Switch to Desktop Audio'.

Productivity Driven

  • Simplified UI

  • Seamless transitions between devices

  • clear & confident
    call muting

Hand-drawn sketches and notes illustrating a process for managing Pomodoro moments, including questions about time and mood, mixing colors for focus, and notifications for breaks and schedules.

Paper first! Sketchbook of feature ideas.

Simple Controls

Our idea with the interface of both hardware and app were simple and quick controls. For the application, I had us focus less on small buttons, but larger gesture-based interactions. And I looked at creating a music aggregator where one could define their mood of music with up/down swipes, and genres with a left/right swipe.

Part TWO

UX / UI

On this project, I was the Principal Product Designer and I worked with the Product Design Lead to jointly create new software features while defining hardware UX. After features were defined, we designed a mobile app for the earbuds.

IxD + Visual Design: Two designers working in tandem and overlapping concepts

Screenshots of five different music and audio app interfaces showcasing various themes and features, including playback controls, track information, volume settings, and customization options.

Left–right / beginning–end progress towards minimalist stylings

 UI Prototype Animations

Transfer audio between mobile and desktop devices

Turn on “Concentration Mode” for time focused productivity.

Final Visual Design

Branded color interface with dark theme for “Concentration” mode.

UI-layout-1920.png
A woman in a green apron working at a coffee station inside a coffee shop, smiling and conversing with the CEO of Starbucks. The background shows shelves with coffee equipment and a large sign that reads 'BETA LAB'.

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More Works:

Starbucks Design System

A woman with short blonde hair smiling while reclining in a first-class airplane seat with a built-in table, looking at a personal entertainment screen.

IFE Handset

A modern living room with a wall-mounted flat-screen TV displaying a colorful, icy landscape and animated figure. The TV is surrounded by ambient LED lighting creating a rainbow glow on the wall. There is a low wooden coffee table with a book and white cups, a gray rug underneath, and a chair with a black throw pillow on the right. A set of hanging pendant lights is in the top left corner.

Philips TV Motion + UI