GoPro Karma
GoPro’s first ever drone. The GoPro Karma was built as a full system, to shoot smooth stabilised footage both on the ground and in the air. We were give the task to design a simplistic user experience for the game-style controller that controlled the drone. This was the first project I worked on during my time at GoPro.
Project Type: Hardware UX
Role: Visual Design / Interaction Design / Motion Design / Production Design
Tools: Sketch / Illustrator / After Effects / Photoshop
Our Principles
The challenge given to our team was to design a drone experience with unrivaled ease of use that is simple and familiar to make sure you get the shot and return home safely.
1. Ease of use:
We looked at many other competitor products that were confusing and hard to use. One of our main goals was to make Karma easy to fly so anyone could fly it.
2. Simple and familiar:
It was important that the product felt inline with other GoPro products and that it felt familiar to our users so they felt at home. We constantly worked with other teams to achieve this.
3. Get the shot:
We worked hard to get out of the users way and allow them to get the shot. We avoided full screen dialogs during flight to allow them to focus on flight. Voice alerts were also a huge part of the experience so users didnt have to look at the screen to know if something was happening.
4. Safety:
Drones are still something new and unfamiliar, some people are terrified to fly them and others don't realize they can be dangerous. We always worked to make the user feel as safe as possible and made sure the drone returned home to the user.
Our Users
The Karma was designed for a variety of different users. We had to consider each and every user for each design decision we made.
The GoPro Enthusiast:
GoPro has a strong brand and large fan base. Our frequent, active, GoPro users were a huge target audience. Karma could take their current GoPro footage to the next level by adding advanced stabilization and a unique perspective. We worked with other designers working on other products to make sure we were aligned on designs to bring consistency across products for our legacy users.
The Professional:
GoPro's are often used by professionals. Professional vloggers would use Karma to easily produce, high quality vlogs combining stabilized on ground and in air content. We made sure Karma had everything a professional needed to get the shot.
The Aspiring User:
Like I mentioned earlier, drones can be intimidating. Karma was created for everyone. We created a safe and easy to use experience; making those aspiring users finally feel comfotable in purchasing a drone.
Joystick Calibration
The joysticks control the direction of the drone during flight. Controlling the drone direction itself is a key part to getting the shot you want. From time to time in order to make sure the joysticks are functioning correctly calibration is needed. I worked with engineers to work out exactly how calibration needed to work and designed the experience accordingly. Each joystick has to be pushed into each corner in order to calibrate.
Tilt Wheel Calibration
The tilt wheel on the controller controls the angle of the camera during flight. Controlling the camera angle is a key part to getting the shot you want. From time to time in order to make sure the camera tilt function is working correctly calibration is needed. I worked with engineers to work out exactly how calibration needed to work and designed the experience accordingly. The wheel needs to be pushed in both directions to be able to calibrate successfully.
Tilt Wheel Re-Design
After the drone was released we made various software updates. In the final update we allowed the camera to tilt upwards an extra 20 degrees. I was given the task to design a new tilt wheel graphic that demonstrated the extra 20 degrees. The screens below show an older design with the old tilt wheel, which goes from 0-90 degrees and the new design with the updated graphic.
Production Design
For this project we hadn't moved over to Zeplin just yet for passing over files to developers and used the old school method of specifications. During my first couple of months at GoPro I managed all of the specification documents including the redline documentation, copy specification and bug fixes.
One Design
I was part of a team at GoPro called, One Design. One Design was a team of visual designers from all products including camera and software. We would meet on a weekly basis to discuss designs and make sure we were aligned.
Each team built a product style guide before meeting down in San Diego to see were we could align further on designs. The image below shows a snipped of the style guide I created for the Karma Controller. We highlighted key visual style components and screen designs for each specific product.
