BOSE FRAMES
Rebrand & Mobile App Design
Creating a mobile application with a refreshed visual identity for Bose Frames, focusing on a seamless end-to end user experience, accessibility, innovative design, and close collaboration with engineering.
BRANDING & IDENTITY
MOBILE DESIGN
USER EXPERIENCE
CHALLENGE
Bose was getting ready to launch their newest line of audio sunglasses, Frames, and asked our team to create a mobile app that would support the full lifecycle of the product. The team also wanted us to refresh the Bose visual identity to appeal to an audience that's younger, active, and fashion-forward.
SOLUTION
We worked closely with the client team to create a parallel brand identity that leveraged Bose's existing typography, incorporated a wider color palette, and utilized unconventional layouts to create a more energetic look and feel. With this newfound identity, we created a mobile application that was engaging and unique within their app ecosystem.
Strategic Workshop & Early Alignment
We started the project with a strategic workshop to better understand the needs and goals of the Bose Frames team. In this workshop, we mapped out the ideal user journey, prioritized features, co-created user personas, and discovered the technical considerations of their BLE technology.
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This early investment in clarifying inputs, needs, and expectations better enabled the product team to collaborate and understand project goals and constraints.
Kickoff documentation to align and guide design, product, and engineering and to ensure a consistent experience.
Wireframe Exploration
Once we determined key product requirements, we explored possible layouts, experiences, and interactions that we could potentially incorporate into the final designs. Bose was particularly interested in a seamless user experience that began as soon as the user unboxed their new Frames, so our initial explorations largely focused on how we might make that transition from a physical product to a digital interface as smooth as possible.
Visual Identity Refresh & Rebrand
The client team asked us to innovate on the Bose brand to create a product that would stand out in the Bose mobile app ecosystem. We took inspiration from modern design and fashion photography to create three moodboards to demonstrate how the visual direction could incorporate texture, shapes, and colors, while still staying true to the core Bose identity.
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The Bose Frames team chose the "Fresh" mood board and liked how the inspiration integrated soft vibrant colors, vertical navigation, and a layered effect.
Final Visual Design
We explored multiple iterations of the chosen mood board to experiment with interaction and layout, incorporating feedback from the client team to refine and shape our final visual direction. Throughout the process, we maintained an ongoing dialogue with the Bose Frames team, seeking out their input to ensure that the design resonated with their expectations and the Bose brand identity. This collaborative process enabled us to fine-tune the design, address any concerns raised by the client, and ensure that the visual direction was cohesive, compelling, and perfectly suited to the Bose Frames user experience.
Designing for All
We created detailed accessibility documentation to ensure that the engineers had the necessary guidelines and resources to build a product that met the highest standards of inclusion. This documentation covers a wide range of accessibility features, with a particular focus on compatibility with key functionalities such as text-to-speech, smart invert, and text resizing. By prioritizing accessibility from the outset, we ensured that accessibility was designed into the experience and wouldn't be neglected at the end of the project.
Lessons Learned
1.
Keep Every Idea
Document, document, document! The team made sure to note and communicate all ideas and discussion outcomes to ensure nothing was forgotten. We ended up returning to a previous idea as a solution and were glad it was so well-documented!
2.
Over Communicate
Communicating early and often with the Bose Frames team kept our team on track and helped the client team feel included throughout our process. Engineering roadblock? We kept the clients looped in with the discussions and they were able to provide a solution from the Bose side.