Architected Keyflows
Detailed keyflow work mapping timeout behavior, touch interactions, and button-driven navigation.
Case Study
← Back to portfolioGPS Fitness Watch
I led the design of a high-performance GPS training watch and its companion mobile and cloud ecosystem, supporting everything from daily activity tracking to training and coaching.
Overview
- Timex partnered with a Shenzhen-based technology company to develop its own GPS fitness product, leveraging an existing watch platform with 30-day battery life. I led UX design across the watch and companion app, balancing Timex legacy features and Ironman brand positioning with a distinct product identity, creating a cohesive experience across firmware, iOS, Android, and cloud services.
- The product needed to support high-performance fitness use cases, including workouts, coaching, and performance tracking, while aligning with evolving product and marketing goals. Inspired by the simplicity of the Pebble watch, I focused on a clear, engaging cross-device experience.
Challenge
Define and deliver a cohesive UX across watch firmware and a companion mobile app on an accelerated timeline, balancing legacy platform constraints with "new" features. The product needed to compete in a crowded fitness market while maintaining trust with existing Timex users, adding physical button-based interactions in addition to touch.
This required aligning interaction models, visual systems, usability, and technical constraints across distributed teams, while delivering clear, implementation-ready specifications.
Features
- Support for 8 languages
- Multiple workout modes
- Race Against feature for progress and pace comparison
- Downloadable and customizable coach workouts
- Customized workout training pages and training views
Design Approach
- I approached the product as a coordinated system across watch and mobile, with each platform serving a distinct role.
- Watch — Focused on real-time interactions, including notifications, workout flows, haptics, and time-sensitive behaviors such as timeouts.
- Mobile App — Handled setup, customization, and richer coaching experiences, extending functionality without adding complexity to the watch.
- Platform & Data Layer — Supported account management, workout configuration, GDPR requirements, and analytics tools used by the vendor for data insights.
Iterative Design
- Replaced a static specification model with an iterative design process, enabling rapid feedback and continuous refinement.
- Established workflows and tools (Confluence, Jira) to align stakeholders across evolving requirements.
- Defined interaction patterns and visual systems across watch, mobile, and cloud.
- Built flexible, adaptable documentation for evolving requirements.
Real-time prototyping
Large-scale prototype and workflow system used to define interaction patterns and support engineering handoff.
Coaching Plans
Worked with Timex team ambassadors (elite athletes) to incorporate training plans for Running, HR-specific, HIIT, and Triathalon workouts.
Key Design Decisions
- Supported dual input (touch + buttons) with consistent interaction patterns.
- Balanced legacy metrics with modern fitness features, including multi-sport modes and heart rate zones.
- Clarified watch and mobile roles, including the nuances of each, for dynamic coaching, with real-time guidance on the watch and creation and management in the app.
- Built a feedback-driven spec system, iterating through real-world testing with the Timex performance team
Outcome
Launched on Timex.com as a connected GPS fitness watch with companion mobile app, creating a cohesive cross-platform experience and giving Timex a foothold in a highly competitive connected fitness market. Beyond the product, the work introduced a more structured and scalable design and specification process to support ongoing development.
- Drove product design and experience strategy for a connected GPS fitness watch and companion mobile app from concept through launch.
- Developed a design system across watch and mobile, covering interactions, components, and edge cases.
- Delivered implementation-ready UX/UI specifications- firmware and mobile.
- Improved alignment across iOS, Android, and cloud teams, before, during and afer launch, reducing ambiguity during development.
- Established an iterative design and release process to support evolving product requirements.
For more detailed information on the features of this watch, check out DC Rainmaker's full review here .
Reflection
Designing a high-performance fitness watch was a significant challenge, requiring intense upfront product definition and hands-on validation through performance testing. There is no greater UX challenge than designing a product that lives on someone’s wrist every day.
Unlike most products, a smartwatch is very personal. It sits at the intersection of utility, performance, and identity, and users notice everything. They expect the experience to seamlessly fit into their lifestyle.
While we successfully brought the product to market, the broader challenge became clear. A great smartwatch experience isn’t defined by a single feature or interaction. It’s the sum of everything, including industrial design, interface, performance, haptics, companion app, onboarding, and the surrounding ecosystem.
Competing in this space also means competing with companies like Apple, Samsung, and Garmin, who have set a very high bar through tightly integrated hardware and software systems. This project reinforced how critical that level of integration and ongoing support is.
The key takeaway: Creating a competitive smartwatch experience depends not just on good design, but on a robust connected system that is continuously supported and evolved. This project demonstrated what’s possible when those elements align, while also providing valuable insight into the complexity of building consumer wearable technology.
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Available for product design, UX leadership, and complex systems work.
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