Microphone Check
Creative director for Logitech, 2017
A streamer's mic settings live in PC software, in the middle of a broadcast.
Strategy:
Logitech G saw a gap: a control center that lets a gamer change audio and broadcast settings without leaving the game. The bet was the dial, one control that turns and presses.
Design:
Banshee: a mic on a base with a screen and a rotary wheel. The interaction model, ten style explorations for the same numbers, and the key screens, levels and volume, gain and polar pattern.
Leadership:
Portal held the studio seat. I worked directly with Logitech's executive team on the interaction design, the UX and every screen. Banshee was skunkworks, and Logitech retired it in 2020.
Product in Hand
One dial, one screen.
A brushed mic over a black base with a watch-sized screen, a rotary wheel and three keys. Turn the wheel and the volume ring climbs to 93. Press and hold for gain and polar pattern.
Interaction Model
Product in Life
Eyes on the game.
Mid-stream, a viewer says you are too quiet. You reach for the base without looking, turn the wheel two clicks and keep playing. The software stays closed. The viewers never see you leave.
Style Explorations
Key Screens
Product in Culture
Voice was coming for the dial.
Streaming turned a bedroom into a broadcast studio, and the studio's controls are still buried in software. Then voice control and speech recognition gained ground and physical inputs lost it, across industrial design. Logitech shelved Banshee in 2020 as voice took the category. The interaction model is the part that still holds.
Position:
Head of Brand & Product at Portal
Services:
Research, Strategy, Design
Partner:
Logitech
Status:
Retired, 2020