• UX Designer

  • UX/IX

  • July, 2009

As part of an effort to distinguish itself as a market leader in healthcare massage products, OSIM commissioned a design initiative to create consistent and delightful user experiences across its product range - from massage chairs to handheld and wearable massage products - and introduce design thinking into its product development process. The results of this project became the design foundation for all future massage products designed and developed by the design team.


As the main designer on this project, my task was to develop the user experience (UX) platform from research to conceptualization - and, with the help of engineers and developers, to implementation. I collaborated with external design consultants to conduct the research, and together we conceptualized the high level interaction flows, wireframes, and prototypes. We then conducted user tests to validate the platform design. One of the most challenging parts of the process was having to learn new skills and methods.


I worked closely with a design consultant to initiate a study of competitor products and an investigation into the entire OSIM products lineup. The evaluation highlighted drastic differences in user flows and inconsistent user experiences and product features - even among products from the same sub-brand - all of which negatively affected OSIM's success in the marketplace. The resulting heuristic report became the baseline for helping to structure a user study to further understand the needs of the company's users and to uncover any unforeseen usability issues.


I planned and organized a comprehensive user study that was conducted in Singapore's Changi International Airport. OSIM set up a Chair Spa Lounge that became the venue for our user study. We offered free massage as an incentive and with the user's consent, we recorded every session. The team then analyzed the results of this user study, identifying usability issues and recognizing user needs as potential feature or design improvements and enhancements. All findings were published as a report for the development, branding, and marketing teams.

Collaborating with a design consultant, we examined all of the user interaction flows in existing OSIM products and documented all these flows into an information architecture (IA) draft. We cross-compared all flows within the same feature category and established common points that lead to the conceptualization of the initial modular flows. These interaction flows became the building blocks that could be scaled to fit future product needs and categories: from a simple handheld massager to a complex massage chair, the interaction experience would remain consistent and familiar to the user.


The team hypothesized that if a concept worked for the massage chairs, it would work for a simple handheld massager. With this hypothesis in mind, we conducted a paper prototyping workshop to better understand user perceptions and usage behaviors. The team assessed all of the paper prototypes created and shortlisted three layouts to be evaluated further.


The team conducted a user evaluation exercise to assess the feasibility of these ideas and to gather feedback for the layouts shortlisted in the paper prototyping workshop. I enlisted the help of the engineers to simulate the actions on the massage chair when paper buttons were “pressed”. I evaluated the feedback from this exercise and refined the layouts into a final design.

Using the results accumulated from research and user observation, I created an interaction model that best fit the context-at-hand. Using the model as the guiding principle, I worked with a design consultant to conceptualize controller designs that ranged from massage chairs to handheld massagers - and even to non-display controllers. We tested the designs with internal users and refined the concepts before finalizing a robust, crisp model. This interaction model became the foundation of the UX platform: all massage products and controllers are designed using this interaction model.


I documented all information related to the interaction and user experience design into a document that became the standard reference for all future product designs. In addition, the engineering and quality assurance teams began using this specification when developing and testing new products.


To better communicate the design intent and interaction behavior, I collaborated with an external vendor to produce an interactive flash prototype. This prototype allowed me to more easily present the UX platform to stakeholders, partners, and developers.

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