A wireless digital photo frame delivering customized content to consumers
In 2008 I joined a small startup in Boston called Frame Media as the VP of Product. Managing a two-person team, I led the user experience design for the content delivery platform Framechannel launched on the Kodak Easyshare WiFi digital photo frame.
These connected digital devices delivered customized content into consumers’ homes and featured a touch-sensitive bezel strip, a precursor to touch screens that would become common among cell phones. The company vision included the delivery of customized content to connected devices in the home, office and automobile.
CONNECTED DEVICE PLATFORM DESIGN
Having just been part of the Motorola design team responsible for the Razr2 phone design, I was very excited to be designing a wireless picture frame’s interaction experience. I wanted the entire user experience to be great for non-technical consumers and enable easy content customization. For consumers to place a connected device in their home’s most intimate settings – in the kitchen or bedroom – required a high level of trust. My intention was to enable and “end to end” experience – unboxing, connecting to the network, viewing and content customization – that was seamless and to built trust with every touchpoint.
Immediately upon starting my new role, I set to work designing new concepts for displaying weather, stock quotes, entertainment and news – including designs for multiple languages.
In addition to content design, I focused on designing the consumer interaction model for the frame and how users would access and choose content for their frames.
To gather user data I established an informal usability lab to perform user research on prototype devices, including frames hacked with paper buttons to simulate UI controls (see photos below). Through this user research, UX challenges were identified early – such as connecting the frame to a home WiFi network. My team and I worked to improve critical flows to enable a simpler onboarding experience for frame customers.
I also designed an admin console to allow consumers to customize content on their frames via a web interface. This console needed to be simple enough for a non-technical consumer to customize the frame feed by choosing content channels.
Content choices came from many content partnerships that allowed consumers to create custom content experiences delivered into their homes, including weather, sports, entertainment and financial data. As a result, the admin console design included some challenges of the discovery of content channels and navigation among many channels.
RESULTS
The Kodak Easyshare wireless frame was released globally by Kodak in 2008. I participated in the release event in New York City and was quoted in the press speaking about the product and the Framechannel service.
I immediately headed back to Boston to start working on the V2 release of the Framechannel platform including new dynamic methods for customizing content on the device. I also started to investigate design concepts for several ideas I had on how the frame could be used as a channel for browsing brands and enabling easy “tap to purchase” interactions.
Soon after, Frame Media changed it name to Thinking Screen Media. The V2 platform release (2009), whose SaaS user experience I designed, won several awards. The Framechannel platform delivered thousands of content channels to connected devices from over 25 manufacturers including Samsung, Sony, Kodak, D-link, Cisco, Philips, TiVo, Roku, Toshiba, Viewsonic and Motorola.
Thinking Screen Media, which raised a total of USD 7.1 million dollars in venture capital, went out of business in 2011.
Now in 2021, concepts I investigated in 2008 on wireless photo frames have become commonplace in consumer mobile experiences such as Instagram. Consumers can now browse branded content and with one tap explore and purchase products without having to navigate away from the content viewing experience.
EXECUTIVE QUOTE
Below is a quote from the Boston Business Journal:
Thinking Screen Media Inc. (formerly Frame Media) COO and founder Jon Finegold worked with Karen Donoghue on software for Kodak’s Framechannel family of connected picture frames and media players:
“She had a lab where she would bring in people from the outside and say ‘here’s your device, go to it,’ and sit there and watch them. Where do they struggle? What questions do they ask? We might have rolled out 30 modifications to that platform over the course of a few months, based on this iterative process.”
Composited images in this case study were designed in collaboration with David Kruta