Motorola XOOM

Released in February 2011, this was Motorola's first tablet and the first to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

I was the ID Lead from start to finish. This included design strategy pre-concept through final development. I was also responsible for the oversight of the accessory designs which included cases, a dock, a keyboard, as well as cleaning up and creating new housings for an off-the-shelf keyboard.

Won Best Tablet of CES 2011.

EARLY CONCEPTS
4 concepts were shown to Google along with a series of accessory and interaction ideas. The selected concept (shown top right) used an aluminum mid-frame with a soft-touch rear housing. Due to antenna requirements, we needed to create a keep-out across the top of the device. We did this by making a simple cut across the back. The added benefit of this approach was that we had a single housing design that worked for both WiFi and 3G variations.

ECOSYSTEM
We always presented this as an ecosystem. Of the original proposals, we did develop a keyboard and two cases.

VESUVIUS_GOOGLE_02112010 EDITED FOR PORTFOLIO.001.jpeg

VESUVIUS_GOOGLE_02112010 EDITED FOR PORTFOLIO.002.jpeg

VESUVIUS_GOOGLE_02112010 EDITED FOR PORTFOLIO.003.jpeg

VESUVIUS_GOOGLE_02112010 EDITED FOR PORTFOLIO.004.jpeg

BEZEL
We made the bezel as tight as technology would allow. Our intuition was that it would look more modern although we were concerned about usability. User research showed users agreed on both points. Despite not having data, we trusted our intuition.

ADDED REQUIREMENTS
Having multiple companies co-developing XOOM proved difficult. We added stereo speakers, 2 additional power connectors, a rear facing camera, flash, proximity sensor, microSD card, and even investigated a 3D camera. While we were able to keep the features clean and organized, it was a departure form one of our stated attribute goals of seamlessness.

CMF
The main anodized aluminum housing was the only part to receive different color treatments. To allow the visual qualities of the aluminum to show through, we proposed a variety of metal tones. These colors also worked well with the anodization process. All devices shared the same soft-touch painted top cap, proximity sensor window, and stainless steel with PVD coating power button bezel. The production CMFs included Dark Titanium Gray and Metallic Taupe. Also added were Licorice and Natural anodized.