Pioneering Multimodal Interfaces for Huawei's Smart Devices
Background:
Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, was venturing into the North American market with a range of smart devices. To stand out in a competitive market, Huawei aimed to offer a seamless user experience across multiple devices, including speakers, TVs, and in-vehicle systems.
Challenge:
Diverse Device Landscape: Ensuring a consistent and intuitive user experience across various devices, each with its unique interface and user expectations.
Adapting to Android OS: While Android OS was a robust platform, tailoring it to fit the specific needs of different smart devices presented challenges.
Market Differentiation: In a saturated North American market, Huawei needed to offer innovative solutions that set their products apart.
Solution:
Adam Cohen, as a Senior UI Designer in R&D at Huawei, took the helm to address these challenges.
Multimodal Interface Design: Adam delved into the realm of multimodality, ensuring that users could interact with Huawei's devices using multiple modes of input and output, be it voice, touch, or visual cues. This approach ensured a fluid user experience, whether the user was switching channels on their Huawei TV, asking their Huawei speaker about the weather, or navigating with their in-vehicle system.
Prototyping on Android OS: Adam designed and prototyped interfaces tailored for Android OS, ensuring that they were optimized for each device type. These prototypes served as the foundation for the development of interfaces for speakers, TVs, and in-vehicle systems tailored for the North American audience.
Collaborative Research: Working alongside UX/interaction designers, PHD researchers, product managers, developers, and visual designers, Adam played a pivotal role in delivering compelling cross-platform/cross-device experiences.
Results:
Unified User Experience: Huawei's range of smart devices offered a seamless and consistent user experience, regardless of the device in use.
Positive Market Reception: With their innovative multimodal interfaces, Huawei's products stood out in the North American market, garnering positive reviews and user feedback.
Foundation for Future Innovations: The groundwork laid by Adam and his team provided Huawei with a strong foundation for future innovations in the realm of smart devices.
Testimonial:
"Adam's vision and expertise in multimodal interface design were instrumental in shaping the user experience of our early smart devices for the North American market. His ability to prototype and adapt to the Android OS across various devices ensured that Huawei products were not only innovative but also user-centric." - Roger Lou, User Research, Huawei.
