Olympic

2017, Bose

Safe and comfortable audio for vigorous outdoor activities

Work
︎ Sketching
︎ Concept development
︎ Engineering feasibility analysis
︎ Prototyping (silicone molding, 3D printing, soft goods, electrical prototyping)
︎ Project management
︎ Management of in-house fabrication run
︎ Storytelling
︎ Visualization
︎ Presentations to executives

Goals
︎ Support for a wide variety of activities
︎ Comfortable
︎ Desirable and fun to use

Listening to music and podcasts during exercise and solo sports is very common and a wide array of headphone products are aimed at serving these customers. However, many activities—like biking, running, or skiing—require awareness of one’s environment and are made increasingly dangerous by the occlusive properties of headphones. In this project, I aimed to create comfortable wearable audio that offers improved awareness and safety for outdoor athletes.

After early concept development, it became clear that modularity would be a key component of serving the needs of such a diverse set of users. As different activities all use a different selection of gear like helmets, hats, backpacks, goggles, and jackets, I converged on a design direction that uses two small wireless speakers and a constellation of accessories.

I went through many rounds of prototyping different forms, acoustic approaches, and material choices. I designed accessories that allow the speakers to attach to helmets, hats, backpacks, jackets, headbands, and goggles. In the course of creating these accessories, it became clear that the addition of a remote control would remove constraints on the speaker placement locations while improving ease of use. The resulting product includes a remote that can clip to a variety of straps or clothing, can be tapped or squeezed to play and pause audio, and features volume control and a microphone for voice commands.

I worked with a user researcher to interview local athletes about their listening habits and their frustrations with current solutions. With these insights, we proceeded to create working prototypes to support field testing with users.

I led a cross-functional team of electrical, mechanical, and software engineers to create a design prototype that could be quickly made in a small-scale production run. I managed the full process of designing and fabricating ten full product kits, each containing around a dozen different elements. Fabrication involved 3D printing, laser-cutting, adhesives, silicone molding, sewing, and electronics assembly. These kits were sent to users around the country to gather feedback.

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