Skullcandy Dime True Wireless
Winner: Good Design Award 2021
Featured: Le Manoosh
Low price doesn’t have to mean low key.
Making a TWS system for <$9 landed cost is tough. Making something that inexpensive that people actually want is a whole different ball game.
Design Goals
Consumer Confidence
Make it familiar for first time users by mimicking the tactility of wired earbuds at every touchpoint.
Use forms, materials, and finishes that preserve newness.
Product Awareness
Generate organic buzz around the product through strikingly differentiated Industrial Design for the space.
Utilize novel to draw attention at Point of Sale
Pride in Ownership
Create affordances that encourage users to share their experiences by displaying the product whether it’s being used or not.
Help users express their individuality by providing them with a striking variety of colorways to choose from.
Minimize Cost at All Costs
Explore manufacturing methods that could reduce the number of factory workers on the production line.
Minimize overall part count to simplify assembly.
Easy to use. Hard to lose.
Design Opportunities
Portability is a DIY hack for Air Pods users.
Skullcandy isn’t far from key fob dimensions.
High quantities may allow for overmolded PCBs.
Ideation and Concept Exploration
I took what was working from these 3 concepts and dug in with engineers and manufacturing experts to identify the most practical path forward under the constraints.
Once design was approved, extensive fit-testing was conducted in dozens of ears to establish a comfortable fit and a practical internal capacity for components.
I explored color combinations to satisfy targets for striking variety and personality.
Final Design
After deep collaboration with engineering and manufacturing partners, I shrunk and simplified the design, eliminated parts, and improved manufacturability.
Bud cases are made up of only 2 glue & snap parts for rapid assembly.
Case is assembled from only 3 plastic parts.
When research is done well, user experience stories make it from product ideation into marketing assets and product detail pages.
This is how good design adds value.
The main function button was moved to the front face as a co-molded part to achieve an IPX4 sweat and water resistance rating.
Extra decorative features were excluded from the lid to minimize thickness as much as possible.
Dime is a novel, expressive, and accessibly priced true wireless earphone launched in 2021 to positive reception for its unique form factor and impressive sound quality and usability. Dime was selected for a Good Design Award that year, and continues to lead the price band in sales and personality.
My goal on the project was to celebrate the less affluent, who often report feeling like outsiders because they can’t afford Apple Airpods or similar competitors. With a survey of Skullcandy’s consumer segmentation study and insights derived from cultural shifts at the time, all decision were carefully made to maximize user experience and social signaling, while minimizing cost and manufacturing complexity.
Roles:
User Research
Cultural Research
Product Story and Positioning
Insights Creation & Synthesis
Ideation, Sketching & Modeling
Detail Design & CAD
Design Engineering