Formsense Pro
Role: Design Director for ID and UX, Head of Product (HW and SW), research, supply chain, product strategy.
Formsense is a startup on the quest to help us lead healthy lives by building smart apparel systems that deliver biomechanical insights in order to prevent injuries, improve performance and aid in recovery across multiple activities. Our first product, Formsense Pro, is a pair of athletic leggings with embedded sensors that transmit data to our companion iPhone app to deliver stats and insights on the user's form during fitness activities.
Formsense Pro did not launch commercially.
Formsense is a startup on the quest to help us lead healthy lives by building smart apparel systems that deliver biomechanical insights in order to prevent injuries, improve performance and aid in recovery across multiple activities. Our first product, Formsense Pro, is a pair of athletic leggings with embedded sensors that transmit data to our companion iPhone app to deliver stats and insights on the user's form during fitness activities.
Formsense Pro did not launch commercially.
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The Formsense Pro system is comprised of the iPhone app, the smart hub and the sensor-embedded leggings
Research
What is form? Our starting question sought to understand how well active people understood how their bodies move, and what their main goals were when partaking in physical activities. Research served as the backbone for all product development, helping us define our initial use case and target user, build our feature roadmaps and plan our prototype user testing. I developed research plans to help us fill in our gaps in knowledge from a user's perspective, researched the fitness market, conducted user interviews and collaborated with contract user researchers for bigger research projects.
What is form? Our starting question sought to understand how well active people understood how their bodies move, and what their main goals were when partaking in physical activities. Research served as the backbone for all product development, helping us define our initial use case and target user, build our feature roadmaps and plan our prototype user testing. I developed research plans to help us fill in our gaps in knowledge from a user's perspective, researched the fitness market, conducted user interviews and collaborated with contract user researchers for bigger research projects.
We used Zoom + Mural to conduct initial user interviews remotely during the pandemic in collaboration with a User Researcher
Software
As our algo team learned to translate our body movement data into actionable cause-and-effect relationships for our use-case, our UX and dev teams were building the app and learning how to effectively communicate form to our users. I aligned both the algo and software team to ensure we were all solving the same problems and testing the same features in a multi-phase development plan. The plan aimed to answer a user's 3 core questions based on their main goals when engaging in fitness activities (to avoid injuries and improve performance):
As our algo team learned to translate our body movement data into actionable cause-and-effect relationships for our use-case, our UX and dev teams were building the app and learning how to effectively communicate form to our users. I aligned both the algo and software team to ensure we were all solving the same problems and testing the same features in a multi-phase development plan. The plan aimed to answer a user's 3 core questions based on their main goals when engaging in fitness activities (to avoid injuries and improve performance):
- How did I do?
- What do I need to improve?
- How do I improve?
The evolution of the app in 2 different phases. Only home screen is shown due to confidentiality reasons.
Hardware
Our hardware evolved in 3 major stages, from initial proof-of-concept prototypes to our product vision for manufacturing. I worked closely with our engineers to quickly design, build and test prototypes, learning from each build to iterate on both manufacturing/assembly and hardware UX. I was responsible for our design language and CMF, hardware UX, plastics CAD and general assembly process.
Our hardware evolved in 3 major stages, from initial proof-of-concept prototypes to our product vision for manufacturing. I worked closely with our engineers to quickly design, build and test prototypes, learning from each build to iterate on both manufacturing/assembly and hardware UX. I was responsible for our design language and CMF, hardware UX, plastics CAD and general assembly process.
Assembling one of our first functional 3D printed prototypes
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Starting CAD for our final design direction
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3D prints of housing design iteration
Our hardware UX evolved as we tested the prototypes on both internal and external users with the goal of making the interactions as simple as possible outside the app. In the end we opted to shrink the hub by removing a screen and instead only communicating critical status information through lights and sound. The video below demonstrates our final intended HW UX on the hub. The light animations were inspired by supercar headlight sequences.
Soft goods
Athletic leggings were chosen as the ideal input device because they enable sensor placement at all major lower-body joints and they are one of the most ubiquitous pieces of clothing in the fitness wardrobe. More sensors means more accuracy, and popular leggings would offer the least amount of friction during and after data collection. We designed the experience of using our leggings based on the same way our users interact with their other athletic apparel, from sizing and comfort to wearing and washing.
The aesthetic design of the leggings was driven by a flattering fit in order to achieve long-term continuous use, which was at times at odds with the sensor architecture. Working closely with the engineering team, I was able to define a functional and flattering design that would feel appropriate for any active person's wardrobe with hidden tech. The only perceivable piece of tech during use would be the hub which attaches on the front waistband which served some key functions:
Athletic leggings were chosen as the ideal input device because they enable sensor placement at all major lower-body joints and they are one of the most ubiquitous pieces of clothing in the fitness wardrobe. More sensors means more accuracy, and popular leggings would offer the least amount of friction during and after data collection. We designed the experience of using our leggings based on the same way our users interact with their other athletic apparel, from sizing and comfort to wearing and washing.
The aesthetic design of the leggings was driven by a flattering fit in order to achieve long-term continuous use, which was at times at odds with the sensor architecture. Working closely with the engineering team, I was able to define a functional and flattering design that would feel appropriate for any active person's wardrobe with hidden tech. The only perceivable piece of tech during use would be the hub which attaches on the front waistband which served some key functions:
- Separating the battery and core electronics from the washable garment lowered the risk of damage. Users could throw the garment in the washer/dryer like they do with they regular clothes.
- A central removable "brain" could make the product family scalable - you could potentially use one hub for multiple garments, lowering the cost to the consumer while providing them with the fashion choices they are accustomed to.
- Spur word-of-mouth by having a discreet indicator of tech - "What is that?" could start a conversation which turns our users into advocates.
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Formsense Pro is a revolutionary product that could blend seamlessly into user's lives while providing exceptional value to stay healthy and injury-free. I am very proud of the team's accomplishments, which are impressive when considering the size of the team.