While at Bose I spent the majority of my time working on 3 main projects– the Bose Soundlink Air speaker, a usability sled/camera mount, and an innovation lab called Project Meta . Find out more about each project by reading below.
Bose SoundLink Air
What is it: The Bose SoundLink Air system is Bose’s first ever AirPlay enabled speaker meaning its capable of wirelessly playing music from iTunes or an iOS device.
Why its exciting: This is the first time something I had a hand in designing can be found in store shelves across the country. Getting the opportunity to see the fruits of my labor in stores like Best Buy and Target is an inexplicably rewarding experience as an engineer and designer.
My Role: Although I joined the project after its initial conception, I worked for 4 months with an interdisciplinary team of Mechanical, Electrical, and Software engineers, as well as User Experience Designers and Marketers to make the product a reality. Even after I had to stop working full time to return to school I was asked to stay on board part time until the product officially launched (an offer which I gladly accepted).
Usability Sled / Camera Mount
This is a video I made in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of my usability sled. On one side, you can see what a usability moderator would see if they had used a traditional over the shoulder videoing technique while on the other side you’ll see what they see using my device.
Why Make it: Bose User Experience needed a better way to see how users interacted with a phone and tablet application than a pure screen capture could provide, and also wanted a way to put themselves in their users shoes and see what they saw better than they had been able to using the existing overhead cameras in the usability lab.
What is it: I created a highly flexible usability sled that gave the testers an ability to wirelessly record and view how a user interacted with a screen, remote, or other hand held product from a distance. Its main advantages over existing usability sleds include its ability to work without leaving any residue or markings and its universal and flexible design that allows it to work on phones, tablets, remotes and more without any modification.
My Role: I single handedly designed and built the entire setup, and then actually had the opportunity to run 15 usability tests on a still confidential project using the newly designed equipment.
Project Meta Innovation Lab
Goal: Teach the Bose Advanced Development community about Human Centered Design techniques while cross pollinating the Industrial Design, User Experience, and Engineering teams
Result: A 6 week, 30 person innovation lab where teams of designers and engineers conducted ethnographic studies, pitched potential problems to solve, brainstormed solutions, prototyped solutions, and ultimately presented both their solutions and learnings to a team of Managers and Directors. Some of these prototyped solutions are currently under review to become fully funded, independent Bose projects.
My Role: I’d taught a similar (but shorter) course in the past and thought it would be valuable at Bose as well. I sought out 2 managers in my department who helped design it and make it a reality. Together the three of us planned and executed the entire event.