Motorola Mobility

(2010–2015) Senior Staff UX Designer
Visual & UX design for softward & hardware experience

Co-led UX exploration on 2016 Moto Mods concepts, and led UX for 2015 companion products
Led/co-led Lock screen & Home screen for Ice Cream Sandwich release
Co-led Messaging apps, Contacts & Phone apps, and Home screen for Gingerbread release

The highlighted project below is from 2015, where I successfully navigated differences of opinion, which resulted in improved hardware UX guidelines

(2015)
moto surround

Redesign of hardware UX (button actions, sounds, LED behaviors) for the moto surround Bluetooth headset

The project

Originally brought on to just polish the UX, I identified ways to thoughtfully rethink 10+ years of no-longer-useful UI patterns

I was responsible for the UX of the 2015 Bluetooth headset products, including the moto surround, a mid-range neckband-style headset.

New to Bluetooth devices, I noticed opportunities to greatly improve the UI.

My contributions

UX/UI design
UXR study script
Changing the product positioning

The team

1 Lead UX designer (myself)
1 UX researcher
1 product manager
3-6 engineers

Launch dates

2015

Impact

Replaced 10+ years of button layout that included rarely used actions
Established button action patterns that had more intuitive placement
Made a more modern action (voice commands) easier to initiate

Contributions

Worked closely with firmware engineers in Atlanta to understand and specify behaviors for all UX corner cases.
Compiled a guideline on LED, sound, and button behaviors for consistency in 2016 headset accessories.

Navigating complexities

Took initiative to inquire about viability of this form factor as an active-use headset, and pushed for research information that demonstrated clearly that this headset format is very poor for active use (e.g. jogging). Motorola overhauled the plan for the active-use headset to use a more appropriate form factor.
Proposed and launched significant UI changes that removed unnecessary and overly complex legacy patterns.
Persuaded my dubious PM and Eng partners through the use of critical task flows and an A/B test in dogfood testing

MY UX PROPOSALS WERE VALIDATED THROUGH DOGFOOD FEEDBACK:

Sample of UI spec from firmware engineers
(before and after proposal)

One of the UI changes: Removed unused legacy function—redial last outgoing number—and replaced with a more modern feature: access to Google Now voice commands

Collaboration: I learned and used the engineering's team preferred way to see the specs for the hardware buttons and actions

Sample of UX scenarios

The spreadsheet above was a quality-of-implementation tool, but storyboarded scenarios were quality-of-experience tools, providing ways to see how all the touchpoints (button gesture, audible response, LED response, behavior of the phone) worked together in real time.

Collaboration: Storyboards were much easier for product management to see the improved UX that was made possible by the UI changes