Next generation collaboration personal device

A turning point for our business unit was when Design worked closely with Product Marketing to shift from the mindset of building products based around features to building products based on experiences. The design team was presented with the problem statement "the current desk phone commands too much real estate for the value it brings." We interviewed customers ranging from universities to hospitals to government offices and gathered as much research as we could. We sorted through 100's of solutions and narrowed those down to the ones that had a high ROI for solving customer pain points yet also aligned with business objectives. Some of those solutions were focused around hot desking, metrics and analytics, modular/expandable design, mobile in the workplace, and hybrid deployment options.

   W E B E X   C O N N E C T E D   P E R S O N A L   D E V I C E

Our modular design allowed users to bring their mobile devices and headsets to any desk for charging and integration. The mobile device, when placed on wireless charging pad, would pass credentials to the desk phone which reserved the desk for that user but would also pull up all of their data on the device such as preferences, call history, caalendar appointments, etc. Customers were price sensitive to our bigger video endpoints, so we designed a 4k camera that integrates tightly with the phone and can be used on any display the customer has deployed, greatly reducing costs. The headset, camera and phone all had companion apps for customization and control of the devices. The phone gathered metrics for temperature, noise levels, and desk utilization rates for facilities and planning departments.

A conference phone designed for collaborative meetings  

The challenge was to create a great sounding standalone unit that could leverage exisiting televisions already mounted in a majority of customer meeting rooms. We explored the various challenges with hybrid environments and the multiple ways of sharing content our users were expecting. The device could allow wireless sharing and be controllable over a Webex client, and when not in use, would broadcast the room availability with calendar.

   W E B E X   C O N N E C T E D   R O O M   D E V I C E

Cisco 7800 & 8800 series desk phones  

The $1B phone business amassed an expansive portfolio of endpoints requiring constant updates, customer support, design evolutions and cost reduction. As face of Design, I would meet with the various customers around the world to ensure we were delivering on our promise of quality, support, and security.

Cisco 8800 series

The original interface was codesigned with IDEO and was in need of a refresh. Customers become very acquainted to an interface over time and become sensitive to any changes, as some updates require new training manuals and added expenses. With over 300 supported features with on-premise environments, the challenges were incorporating increased functionality with limited real estate and hard keys. I also partnered very closely with the industrial design team defining solutions for camera shutter behavior, keypad layout, standby lights, iconography, etc.

Design input on hardware selection 

After realizing the importance of how certain hardware choices can impact overall UX, I wanted our team to be more proactive by getting in front of these decisions in order to make sure that UX could deliver the best experience possible given the price targets. Here is an example of a design readout of an LCD evaluation, highlighting greyscale inversion issues at various viewing angles which can impact legibility & readability. The design led study was conducted to determine best LCD candidate and mounting solution.