Beats Interaction Design

Value to user = Value to Business

When defining Interaction Design (IxD) meant at Beats by Dre, it was as important to the business that we create an emotionally engaging product experience as it was to build something simple, intuitive, and consistent.

Express our Culture

Best in class pairing on both iOS and Android, Single button music control — the “MFB” button, and satisfying button and audio feedback were all table stakes — the product had to feel unapologetically “Beats”.

Reflective Design

The strength of the brand provided a powerful visceral appeal (“I want it — what is it?”), while the packaging and out-of-box experience delivered excellent behavioral design (“Wow, what a great purchase I just made”). But what we uncovered was a missing layer of reflective design — the long-term sense of how the product performs day to day, its cultural impact, and whether the owner feels it was worth it over time (“Wear in, not wear out”).

The Invisible Hand

As a team, we believed that if we did our job right, it should feel like “nobody had been in here” — but the positive emotional response to the product should persist. That invisible hand — shaping how it feels, not just how it functions — was at the heart of our Interaction Design approach. {Gestural Design, support user intent - opening the headphones powers them on, removing the need to power on, you just use the product and it responds. Power on sounds to show the full sonic response of your product — and giving it its own way of saying "hello". Seamless software experience whether using iOS or Android — the software reacts to a user using the product as intended, and invits the user in.