Social enterprise thinking involves balancing financial benefits with social goals and prioritizing people's interests. This methodology was employed to develop a solution for Bang & Olufsen, as it is inherently human-focused and the project had a significant social component. Given the substantial requirement for functionality, the human-centered design approach was used as a framework for each step of the design thinking process, effectively completing the project using social enterprise thinking.
The purpose of this ideation was to visualize how users would complete the primary features of the solution. This process was carried out in two phases: the initial task flow ideation for each major feature, followed by the refinement of these task flows to produce the final user flows for each feature.
The initial ideation focused on selecting three major features to showcase the solution and meet the project's requirements for the client. This led to the following choice of tasks: syncing a streaming service to download music, inviting users to join Surround Sound mode, and editing the audio device queue for Surround Sound mode. These tasks were selected to effectively illustrate how the solution addressed both user and client expectations. The task flows were hand-sketched to rapidly ideate and visualize the process for each task.
The refinement of the task flows led to the creation of digitized user flows, which visualized and elaborated on the options available to users as they completed their tasks. We learned that
The initial ideation focused on selecting three major features to showcase the solution and meet the project's requirements for the client. This led to the following choice of tasks: syncing a streaming service to download music, inviting users to join Surround Sound mode, and editing the audio device queue for Surround Sound mode. These tasks were selected to effectively illustrate how the solution addressed both user and client expectations. The task flows were hand-sketched to rapidly ideate and visualize the process for each task.
The refinement of the task flows led to the creation of digitized user flows, which visualized and elaborated on the options available to users as they completed their tasks. We learned that
Wireframe ideation was conducted to visualize the user interaction and experience of the solution, providing an understanding of how the pages of the mobile app would be structured and interact with one another. This process was carried out in two phases: the initial wireframe ideation to sketch the structure and interactions of each page, followed by the refinement to create low-fidelity digital wireframes that effectively visualized the user experience.
The initial wireframes began by taking the initial task flows and sketching the structure of each page. This approach helped brainstorm the layout, interactions, features, and content of each page. The process resulted in hand-sketched wire flows for each primary feature.
The refinement of the initial wireframes resulted in low-fidelity digital wireframes of the user flow. This process involved using the final user flow to identify the necessary pages for the wireframes, ensuring each option and step of the task was covered. With all necessary pages in place, the initial wireframes were used to define and refine the layout, interaction, and content for each page of the primary features. This resulted in low-fidelity wireframes that effectively visualized the user experience.
The initial wireframes began by taking the initial task flows and sketching the structure of each page. This approach helped brainstorm the layout, interactions, features, and content of each page. The process resulted in hand-sketched wire flows for each primary feature.
The refinement of the initial wireframes resulted in low-fidelity digital wireframes of the user flow. This process involved using the final user flow to identify the necessary pages for the wireframes, ensuring each option and step of the task was covered. With all necessary pages in place, the initial wireframes were used to define and refine the layout, interaction, and content for each page of the primary features. This resulted in low-fidelity wireframes that effectively visualized the user experience.
The brand research concluded by identifying the aesthetic design choices from the brand's mobile app and speaker collection, which guided the prototyping of both the speaker and app. This research highlighted material and texture inspirations from the speaker collection and key characteristics from the brand's UI and design system elements, providing valuable insights for developing the final solutions.
Due to the brand research for UI inspiration, five key findings emerged from the UI elements: color, border, elevation, iconography, spacing, and element shape.
Material inspiration research was conducted by reviewing products similar to the final solution's speaker. Only portable speakers of similar size and suitable for outdoor use were considered for this brand research.
Due to the brand research for UI inspiration, five key findings emerged from the UI elements: color, border, elevation, iconography, spacing, and element shape.
Material inspiration research was conducted by reviewing products similar to the final solution's speaker. Only portable speakers of similar size and suitable for outdoor use were considered for this brand research.
In the end, the project successfully met the client's expectations, who were pleased with the solution and provided positive feedback. Although they had some technical concerns about the features, they were confident in their ability to resolve them. Overall, the client felt that the solution had strong potential as a viable product for launch.
This project deepened my appreciation for the time and effort involved in creating high-end products. It proved to be a valuable addition to the Bang & Olufsen product line, with strong potential for market success.