I led a team of visual and UX designers to create the online customization tool for Under Armour's new shoe and apparel customizer - UA ICON. The particular printing technology used for these products meant that we'd have to create a tool that allowed for much more control than just selecting color swatches - image uploads, editable patterns and text inputs were among some of the advanced features added while keeping the UI simple, structured and fun to use.
Because the level of customization built into UA ICON is so high, we designed entry points into the tool that would give people a starting point so they wouldn’t get blank-canvas paralysis.
By presenting examples of shoe designs customized by famous college and pro athletes, we showed the possibilities of the tool at the same time as providing an easy way to get in and start changing things up.
The tool itself is fully responsive and is designed to work best on mobile, with the majority of the screen dedicated to a large preview of your design, and the UI controls easily accessible along the bottom.
The main surface of the shoe - the upper - is digitally printable. This greatly increases the number of possible colors to choose from, and requires a user interface that gives simple choices to casual users while allowing for deeper controls for those who must get their school colors perfectly right.
We designed a complementary experience to inspire shoe creators - an infinite wall of curated and user-generated designs that can be used as starting points for an endless number of remixes, mashups, and original designs.
I also had the chance to develop and design the official logo for the product, which is used on the packaging and the shoes themselves.
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Client: Under Armour/BIG SPACESHIP … Role: Design Director, Designer, Animator
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