Untitled

Gathers Event Platform

A Playstation Controller Helped Me Rain-Proof a Touchscreen

The Hammerhead Dashboard is a primary touchpoint in the Karoo bike computer ecosystem, designed to support the user experience with account management and tooling to interact with Hammerhead data primitives– Routes, Rides, and Workouts. This web-based platform extends the capabilities of Karoo devices, providing an interface for complex interfaces like route building & data analysis. Along with data management for account settings, the Dashboard supports the integration with third-party partners like Strava, TrainingPeaks, and the SRAM AXS App.

My role in the Dashboard's development was multifaceted, involving the design of its responsive and accessible componentry, integration with third-party services, and the management of intricate user interfaces. One of my key achievements was the design of the route management system, a unique feature in the cycling space that greatly enhances user experience on the Dashboard.

```cv
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```

The original user problem that the Route Management system solves for revolves around the complexity and inconvenience cyclists faced in organizing and accessing their routes. Prior to this system, cyclists often struggled with a cluttered and unorganized collection of routes, making it difficult to find and select the appropriate paths for their rides. Especially for avid cyclists with hundreds or even thousands of routes, this lack of organization led to a time-consuming and frustrating experience.

They needed a way to efficiently manage, categorize, and retrieve routes without hassle. The Route Management system addressed these challenges by offering features like route collections, multi-select adjustments, and advanced filtering, which allowed cyclists to easily organize, find, and modify routes. This solution transformed the route planning process into a streamlined, user-friendly experience, significantly enhancing the usability of the Hammerhead Dashboard for cyclists of all levels.

## Development Process

The development of the Dashboard followed a user-first approach, with a focus on understanding and integrating cyclist feedback into each design iteration. Using "Jobs to be Done" theory, we pinpointed the right problems at the right times. My involvement ranged from conducting user research and prototype validation to managing design aspects across various browser sizes, ensuring a responsive and user-friendly experience. Through the development of the Dashboard I learned to rely on regular user feedback and develop input to make quality design decisions.

For example, I designed a novel login flow on the Karoo that stemmed from a user-centered approach, heavily leveraging JTBD to identify pain points. Generative research methods, like moderated Zoom calls annotated in Dovetail (our preferred research repository) helped me figure out a common pain hidden in plain sight: Karoo user login. Simply put, the small screen on Karoo made password input difficult. From these insights, I collaborated with devs to come up with a QR-code based login. The user is provided the option to scan a QR on their phone, which opens the dashboard to authenticate the device. This has downstream effects across the Karoo OS, stemming from the benefits of the user’s smartphone browser like keychain management and pre-authentication with cookies. I took these designs back to our research group, and validated the Figma prototypes with Maze and Optimal Workshop. This feature is now the preferred method for logging in over traditional username password input on Karoo.

```cv
youtube
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```

Our QR login illustrates an important way my approach to product design developed alongside the Dashboard. Early on, I thought of individual design initiatives as touchpoint-specific. My designs would exist solely on a single platform, and not cross over to our other products. This type of thinking wouldn’t allow the QR solution to exist. Over time my thinking process turned insight-first, and the product touchpoint would be secondary. This enabled flows to cross over products where it would improve the experience for riders.

## Outcome and Impact

Features like the QR login flow show how the Hammerhead Dashboard improves the Karoo cycling experience. This allows riders to easily connect and manage their data. Along with user management and route planning, the Dashboard is a useful tool for customizing devices and analyzing ride data. With its practical features for adjusting settings and gaining insights into performance, the Dashboard enhances the cyclist's journey, both before and after the ride, making it an essential part of the Karoo ecosystem.

```cv
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```

## Difficulties and Hard-Learned Lessons

A notable difficulty was the absence of specific metrics or goals in our testing phase, which initially made it challenging to gauge the success of design changes. This experience taught me the importance of establishing clear, quantifiable targets for each project phase, ensuring that our design decisions were not only intuitive but also data-driven. I found it effective to develop quantitative “gates” to achieve before sending off a design to engineering for grooming. It underscored the need for a more structured approach to validating design choices, a lesson that has refined my perspective on product development and user experience.

```cv
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```

## Reflections

The development of the Hammerhead Dashboard brought with it a wealth of learning experiences. A key takeaway for me was the power of a step-by-step approach to complex design challenges. By dissecting each problem and addressing it individually, I was able to craft more meaningful and user-friendly solutions. This project also enhanced my skills in responsive web design, balancing functionality and accessibility across various devices. It underscored the importance of aligning user requirements with technical feasibility, a balancing act that has become a cornerstone of my design philosophy.

### Collaborators

**Steve Winchell** mentored me as Hammerhead's Lead Product Designer\
**Will Tribble** PM\
**Grayson Pollock** PM

Hammerhead Dashboard

A high level overview of the Hammerhead Product Team's strategies, classification system, and tools used for insight-driven research.

```cv
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```

## Modular Research Approach

At Hammerhead, we have developed interrelated products and experiences. Given the wide array of user journeys across these products and the variety of internal team needs, we've adopted a versatile research methodology that prioritizes adaptability and focuses on insights.

### Insight Generation

We define insights as user observations supported by concrete evidence. A typical example at Hammerhead is a Dovetail Insight, which combines a succinct summary with excerpts from interview transcripts.

```cv
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```

### Pattern-Based Research (Inductive)

Our research often emerges from trends observed across various research activities, including customer interviews, churn analysis, and feature-specific studies. I've also built a Zapier bot for our Slack team that accepts any unstructured form of user feedback and injects it into Dovetail. As we sift through this dataset on a regular basis, we highlight and annotate trends. These insights are predominantly qualitative, revealing unforeseen user behaviors. Sometimes tagging data classifies context in which the transcript is taking place. Features based on these insights are usually further validated through subsequent rounds of Hypothesis-Based research.

### Hypothesis-Based Research (Deductive)

This type of research is hypothesis-driven, originating from industry knowledge, observed user behaviors, or competitive analysis. At Hammerhead, this often involves analyzing of design iterations with unmoderated user interviews, or moderated, asynchronous testing with Maze. The insights generated from this style of research lean towards quantitative analysis and occasionally suggests the causes behind behaviors. Hypothesis-based findings are typically cross-verified with subsequent Pattern-Based research.

## Taxonomies

### Project-Specific Tags

These tags are exclusive to a particular research project, denoting context-specific user motivations, design choices, or direct user feedback. They are used within the project's scope and are organized according to the researcher's preferred method. Such tags evolve with the research, starting abstract and gradually become more refined. Limiting these tags to their respective projects allows for focused research without impacting other studies, adding noise.

```cv
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```

### Universal Tags

Universal tags are applied across all research projects. In Dovetail, they use the term "Extensions" to refer to universal tags. They identify universally relevant user emotions, as well as ongoing tracking of products, experiences, or third-party interactions. These tags are organized on universal boards, accessible to any project, and are color-coded for ease of reference. Universal tags facilitate long-term and high-level tracking. Occasionally, a project-specific tag may gain enough relevance to be included on a universal board, but more commonly, universal tags are drawn from existing boards.

```cv
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```

### Tagging Example

Consider a transcript discussing the Off-Route CLIMBER feature. Initial tagging might focus on project-specific elements like user hesitations or the perceived value of the feature. Follow up tagging would involve universal patterns such as user sentiment and the software feature discussed.

```cv
gallery
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```

**Dual Tagging:** Applying multiple tags to a statement enriches the dataset.

**Conservative Tagging:** Merging tags onto universal boards or maintaining seemingly overlapping project tags is easier. Hence, a cautious approach in tagging is recommended.

### Search & Filter Example

The true utility of universal tags becomes evident by the search capabilities they enable. For instance, to gauge user sentiment about a specific rear bike radar, one might filter for mentions of the radar, then further refine the search with sentiment tags. This process can lead to new insights or validate existing hypotheses.

```cv
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```

### Collaborators

**Steve Winchell** and I developed these methodologies and tagging structures together through trial and error during the development of Karoo 2.

### References

* [Foundations of Atomic Research by Tomer Sharon](https://tsharon.medium.com/foundations-of-atomic-research-a937d5da5fbb)

* [Dovetail](https://dovetail.com/)

* [Workspace Tags at Dovetail](https://dovetail.com/blog/introducing-workspace-tags/)

Research Methodologies in Dovetail

Creating a Tour de France Winning Data Visualization

Karoo 2

In Search of Birch

Product Designer

"In Search of Birch" is a writeup documenting a mountaineering trip I took in the Spring of 2023 to climb and ski new mountains in the Arctic Circle of Northern Norway. Over the course of the trip we attempted several lines previously inaccessible. While the writeup isn't directly related to my professional work, it's an aspect of my life that would be a mistake to omit. Outside of product design I spend much of my time training for mountaineering and mountain-related ultra-endurance undertakings.

WIRED "Pick"

Karoo 2 was chosen as a WIRED magazine gear pick in 2022

Site of the Day

Awarded Site of the Day for web design and development of the Glow in the Dirt website.

US Patent Pending– Route based feature implementations without defined route or destination

A computer-based method for providing analytical features at a navigation device. The method includes determining, by a position determining module of the navigation device, a first location of the navigation device associated with a first time. The method then proceeds to determine a second location of the navigation device associated with a second time and associates the first and second locations with coordinates on a first graph edge of a map, determines a travel direction based on a sequence of the locations, and determines a current location of the navigation device. An inferred path defining a travel path is then based on coordinates associated with the first and second locations, the travel direction, and the current location, and mapping data associated with the likely travel path is analyzed to identify a characteristic of interest of the likely travel path.

Gear of the Year

Karoo 2 was awarded "Gear of the Year" by Cycling News magazine

Editors' Choice

Karoo 2 was awarded the title of Bicycling Magazine's "Editors' Choice"

Graduated with emphases on visual design & mobile software development.

The Iovine and Young Academy’s Bachelor of Science innovative degree offers a four-year course of study focused on the intersection of technology, business, human-centered design and communication. Through its signature integrated learning framework, students develop an agile mindset to analyze complex challenges, develop systems-level strategies, and intersectional expertise to lead transformational change and innovation in their desired career path.

Smog Open Studio

Senior Spotlight

Private

The Karoo 2 is a cycling computer first released in 2020, aimed at disrupting the then-stagnant bike GPS market. Featuring a modern, user-friendly OS built on Android, it offers advanced navigation and route planning capabilities. My work on this project involved redesigning core operating system design patterns, leading feature development, and establishing an iterative user research framework. My role evolved significantly post-acquisition by SRAM LLC, focusing on integrating teams and processes within the new organizational structure. Since the release of the Karoo 2, it's become the head unit of choice for 3 UCI World-Tour teams competing in the Tour de France. As of 2023, Karoo 2 has supported over 4M+ rides by 65k+ riders.

At the core of the Hammerhead Karoo's operating system is a UX model we call rider profiles. Initially, this concept didn't exist on the device. As we built new features, new settings inevitably crept into the settings app. Users were confronted with an issue: they had to open their settings more and more as they switched between riding styles. This menu jumping added to the time-to-ride, getting in the way of getting on the bike. The problem became apparent only after a series of UX symptoms grew. I was tasked with addressing this nuanced and hidden issue. The resulting work became our rider profile model. Rider profiles allow users to embed configurations dependent on each ride context. Profiles mean riders can get riding with fewer taps and less frustration.

Rider Profiles

Proposed a new activation and go to market strategy for Alpha in 2021, to launch both the Adidas footwear product line & beyond. The focused product offerings centered around training support & education for young athletes.

Alpha 2021 Go-to-market Strategy

Via Glow in the Dirt, I was approached by an up and coming film production studio out of Vancouver– GOOD–IDEA® Studio. The group gave us their trust in making the initial website to host their portfolio. We worked with designer Lea Schwegler to turn her comprehensive design language into an interactive landing page.

Landing Page

The Hammerhead Dashboard is a primary touchpoint in the Karoo bike computer ecosystem, designed to support the user experience with account management and tooling to interact with Hammerhead data primitives– Routes, Rides, and Workouts. This web-based platform extends the capabilities of Karoo devices, providing an interface for complex interfaces like route building & data analysis. Along with data management for account settings, the Dashboard supports the integration with third-party partners like Strava, TrainingPeaks, and the SRAM AXS App.

Worked alongside a team at USC Iovine-Young consulting with Fender Guitars on a point-of-purchase experience. After examining market trends, we recommended Fender take back ownership of the retail experience, rather than relying on Guitar Center employees to be the front line for selling their products. I delivered experience concepts including CAD models and visualization. The concepts were iterated on with Evan Jones, the then Chief Marketing Officer at Fender.

Point of Purchase Experience

CLIMBER is a feature of the Karoo series of cycling computers that visualizes the upcoming climbs a rider faces during a bike ride. CLIMBER was initially designed for the competition needs of the professional cycling team Israel Start-up Nation. We adapted their designs into a unique feature set for everyday cyclists. Since then, CLIMBER has been on the handlebars of several Tour de France stage wins. Follow-up user insights led a patent with our Predictive Path Technology.

CLIMBER & Predictive Path

Gathers was a industry research project looking at the evolving relationship between people and food-centric experiences, inspired by transformations in the pre-Covid restaurant industry. Our research pinpointed a surge in startup dining experiences emerging from cities like NY and LA, with supper clubs like Hwoo's Maru and Pith by Jonah Reider. These clubs represented a broader trend of event-driven experiences. As we delved deeper, operational challenges became evident, especially as these events scaled. To address these challenges, we created a comprehensive platform offering boutique ticketing, finance, and CRM solutions tailored to empower and aid individual creators in their growth.

Gathers Event Hosting Platform

Worked on the early stage software for the original Hammerhead Karoo cycling computer. Developed the initial map styles for use on the web-dashboard and in-ride on the device itself. Planned and built the Karoo's motion graphic language, including startup boot animations.

Karoo 1

The early operating system we had designed for the Karoo cycling GPS proposed a simple in-ride experience without much concern for future feature growth. While there was a place for every in-ride action a rider might want to perform on the device, that subset of in-ride actions was limited. We supported only a handful of device controls at the time. To account for the increasing number of in-ride features, we had to rethink fundamental design patterns for consistency and ease of use. So, we created the Control Center. Control Center is a system-wide Karoo OS experience first released in 2021. It allows cyclists to trigger ride-critical functions, like changing workouts or routing models. All while maintaining accessibility in the real world and on the bike.

Control Center

I redesigned Hammerhead's ecosystem of workout tools. In doing so, I revisited assumptions we had previously made regarding our then-neglected support for structured training. My deliverables included tools for web-based training plans, device-based workout configuration, integrations with partner companies, and a novel set of data visualizations to follow structured workouts during bike rides. My research showed that to sell a better training experience, users needed to solve problems across touch points in their product journey. I've studied training principles from our professional athletes and simplified their training insights into a consumer-friendly tool. The resulting product capitalizes on best-in-class methods and tooling while simplifying the complex nature of endurance training.

Workout Ecosystem

To accompany my writeup, titled "In Search of Birch", I used LiDAR data to generate 3 isometric mountain scenes to be printed. The LiDAR data was derived from several datasets made public by the Norwegian government. The shots consist of ~500,000,000 complied data points. On each scene I've inscribed with pen the lines I attempted to climb during my trip to the region. The resulting deliverables included a series of 12–4"x6" prints, and 3–16"x24" prints.

In Search of Birch – Generative Art

Built a jacket, glove, and pant combo of outerwear aiming at being manufactured at low cost, while still providing high end material choices, like Gore-Tex.

Alpine Basics

Designed and built a proof-of-concept quadra-lens digital camera. the aim of the project was to digitize the Nimble analog quadra-lens film camera. The resulting prototype was built off of a Raspberry Pi and transmitted data via BTLE to your smartphone.

Nimslo

"In Search of Birch" is a film accompanying our writeup documenting a mountaineering trip in the Spring of 2023. Our mission was to climb and ski new mountains in the Arctic Circle of Northern Norway. Over the course of the trip we attempted several lines previously inaccessible. While the writeup and film aren't directly related to my professional work, it's an aspect of my life that would be a mistake to omit. Outside of product design I spend much of my time training for mountaineering and mountain-related ultra-endurance undertakings.

In Search of Birch – Film

Developed an iOS app for use in skiing. The problem the app aimed to solve for is as follows:

When skiing, biking, or running, the athlete must crank up their volume to hear music while in action. But, when the athlete stops, the relative volume of their music is too loud. In order to hear everything around them, or talk with friends, they must reduce the volume. Once in action again, the volume is now to low to hear relative to wind noise. 

Fast n' Blast used the smartphone's GPS to watch for changes in speed. Once going fast enough, it would turn up the athletes volume to the appropriate level. It would reduce volume when stopped. I gave the app to a variety of ski team members at USC to test.

Fast n' Blast

Created a novel method for the design and manufacturing of custom ear plugs and molded-ear inserts using iOS Face ID technology. By using the LiDAR sensors on Apple devices, I was able to create detailed 3D scans of my friends' ears and was able to fabricate with SLA 3D printers the required molds. Once the molds were printed, I was able to rapidly produce and improve on the scans.

The Plug

Operated an agency and studio space in Los Angeles consulting on creative projects focusing on concept development, physical production, and digital design. Secured 20 clients, helping produce events, build brands, and develop websites. Select clients include Janet Jackson, Fender Guitars, and the City of Culver City, CA.

Partner, Design Lead

Web development for Sequence's realtime multiplayer NLE video editing software based in the browser. Focus on the SvelteKit frontend and Apollo GraphQL project service.

Product Engineer

Contracted on UI / UX for Glossi's realtime raytracing product visualization platform for the browser.

Design Contractor

Managed a design strategy team for the Adidas Alpha project. Collaborated with Adidas researchers to understand emerging markets before developing a go-to market campaign. Facilitated project planning, corporate reporting, and deliverable oversight.

Design Consultant

One of two digital product designers responsible for bringing Hammerhead’s 3 generations of cycling computers to market. Designed interfaces spanning iOS, web, and our own OS where situational awareness is critical. Co-led the process to define our upcoming flagship device. Led the integration of our multi- platform design system with our acquiring company’s system. Worked with Tour de France champions to develop data visualizations, which we adapted to provide value for everyday riders. My contributions led to a patent, reinforcing our products’ unique value for riders. Matured our process to encourage research and engineering collaboration throughout. By the end of my time, I’ve helped riders navigate over 4M+ bike rides.

Assisted co-founders and engineers at an all-in-one B2B wholesale platform for luxury goods utilized at Paris, London, NYC & Mumbai fashion weeks. The designs I implemented converted to 18 enterprise accounts. Backed by Sequoia, Farfetch & LVMH. Work concluded with +110% in revenue for partnering fashion labels.

Hunter Bryant

2023