Earlier case study

Reimagining how people customize their hybrid smartwatch

Overview

In 2015, Fossil Group noticed a decline in traditional watch sales and saw an opportunity to shift in another direction and integrate smart functionality into their watches called the Hybrid Smartwatch.

In 2016, the wearables market was evolving. So, with an inherited designfrom a creative agency and a newly formed design team at the start of 2017, Fossil had the opportunity to redesign the app to best meet the user’s needs and provide greater functionality.

The design team was tasked to redefine the Hybrid watch experience.

Duration

1.5 years

My role

Design lead

Impact

Redesigned the Fossil Q mobile app
Launched globally on October 22nd, 2017
Delivered the redesign on schedule

Role &
Responsibilities

Designing the end-to-end Fossil Q experience

I was hired specifically to work on redesigning the Fossil Q App that pairs with the hybrid smartwatch. Working side-by-side with my UX partner, we designed the user experience for the entire app. After developing initial concepts, l focused mainly on the experience of assigning notifications from contacts and apps to the watch.

The team consisted of 3 designers heads down working on the app for the length of the project. In addition, I worked alongside 2 Product managers, a Content Strategist and developers.

As the project moved to UI design, I worked out UX Documentation and animations for development.

The app launched globally on October 22nd, 2017.

Customer insights

I partnered with the Customer Care team to gain insight into our customer's pain points and feedback.

Concept creation

I wireframed the core features of the app with another UX designer before splitting off and creating them digitally.

Prototyping

I created prototypes and user interaction demonstrations for stakeholders and development and to use for user testing.

Usertesting

Prior to me joining, there wasn't an established user research practice. So, I spearheaded the user testing process of finding users, creating the tests, conducting the tests and analysis.

UX documentation

I created a UX specifications document consisting of component definitions, spacing, and user flows during the project to communicate requirements to the engineering team.

Animations

I created animations of user interactions for the engineering team to supplement the UX specifications.

Product
Challenge

Creating a foundation that could scale across brands

Our goal was to evaluate the architecture of the existing app and restructure to support new technology and build scalable customization across brand portfolio. 2 key new features were adding a Home screen and Shortcuts.

Our ambition was to create a firm foundation for more brands to follow that would give the user a wholesome experience.

Our high level goals were to:

Simplify and create an intuitive experience
Drive engagement to the brands and inside the app
Unlock new features

The evolution of the Fossil Q app from 2016 (left) to early 2017 (middle) to Fall 2017 (right).

Activity home screen with bottom navigation

Design
Question

How might we reimagine and simplify customizing the smartwatch mobile experience?

Final Design

Fossil notifications — Notifications screen

Conclusion

Fossil Q app redesign launch

We successfully launched the redesigned app on schedule. It was an amazing success considering the scale and complexity of the project and completing it in 8 months.

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