The next generation of everyday smart glasses, Focals 2.0 by North. Lighter & sleeker, more prescription support, and a 10x improved display. Unfortunately customers never had a chance to experience Focals 2.0. In 2020, Google acquired North to join forces with their broader efforts to build helpful devices and services. Focals 2.0 was definitely one of the most challenging and exciting products that I've ever had the opportunity to work on.
As the motion design lead, I was responsible for defining the motion design language across the entire experience. I also had a heavy hand in the interaction design as it overlaps significantly with the motion design. With a product like this it is all that much more important to make sure the physical input is reflected seamlessly on the display.
Many of the hardware constraints that limited our designs with the first generation of Focals were alleviated with Focals 2.0 hardware. The new display was improved significantly on multiple levels, clarity, colour, and sharpness. Consequently this gave our design team more freedom to test the limits of what a smart glasses head-up experience could be. Here are some motion examples for just a few of the planned experiences that I worked on.
Easily navigate to the music controller to see what song is playing, skip to the next song, or like the current track.
Get all the weather info you need in an instant with stylized animation reflecting the current weather.
See what’s next in your day by peeking at your calendar with a bite size summary of your day.