WELT Corporation | Head Designer
2016.4-2017.8
Role:
Managed WELT project across research, HW and SW product development, mass production and sale.
Direct and designed WELT's design outcomes including UX, product, GUI, brand identity, packaging and promotional design.
WELT Co.
WELT Corporation is a spin-off healthcare venture project from Samsung Electronics Creative Lab. Its product, Smart belt, is a world's first belt wearable healthcare solution for obesity and metabolic syndrome. Currently, WELT is reaching a significant global sales in fashion and healthcare market.
Smart belt, WELT, is a fashionable healthcare wearable to monitor health data from the waist. Slim sensors embedded within the belt invisibly track waist size, eating habits and activity levels while wearing. Implementing technology on a daily worn object, users can naturally adapt to the product and service. It provides a seamless experience with tracking wearable that has never been seen, or worn, before.
Smart Belt is designed to manage health in everyday life while being flexible to fashion trends. It integrates healthcare service, technology and fashion accessory to provide an effective health care with familiar user experience. The unique shape of buckle represents the corporate signature to aid in brand recognition without being visually loud. While making a design statement on front view, all display and buttons that may grasp attention are eliminated, or placed hidden.
Healthcare Service
Actionable Health Insight
WELT provides comprehensive health analysis with insights and warnings so users can focus on staying balanced. WELT’s health goals are personalized individually based on user's health data. As more data is accrued, WELT will become even more fine tuned to meet one's fitness goals. Also intuitively organized into one page dashboard, health data is composed for easier user experience. WELT intends to keep interface as simple as possible to avoid users's hassle to read information.
Simple User Interface
Intuitively organized into one page dashboard, health data is composed for easier user experience. WELT intends to keep interface as simple as possible to avoid users's hassle to read information.
Branding & Packaging
Brand language is minimal yet stylish to fit high end fashion product. Packaging was designed to save storage space and reduce production cost while giving good presentation of new fashion & tech product. Its round shape prevents leather to deform while being stocked so users always receive a clean and quality leather belt.
Design Process
1_ Concept Development
Problem: Health, Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome results from bad health habits, and is a shortcut to chronic disease and obesity. It raises chances of chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension to four times. According to American College of Preventive Medicine, 1 in 3 adults are suffering with metabolic syndrome. To prevent metabolic syndrome, potential patients need accurate diagnosis and continuous treatment on a daily basis.
Waist circumference is a powerful basis to detect overweight and obesity, and it is a major diagnostic indicator for various health risks. Treatment for metabolic syndrome is prescribed through controlled exercise, and eating habits.
Problem: Market, Wearables UX
Wearable health tracker is the most effective method to deliver healthcare providers the detailed and continuous log of patient's health habits that they accrue overtime. However the critical problems in existing fitness trackers make them difficult to provide customized treatment.
Although there are many fitness bands and smart watches that intend to monitor daily health logs,
1. 33% of activity trackers are abandoned within 6 months due to uncomfortable UX.
2. Focus is only on tracking activity level (calorie burn), only 1 of the 3 measures that should be monitored to prevent weight gain.
2_ System Solution
Comprehensive Healthcare Service
Monitoring unique health data obtained in waist area including waist circumference, food consumption pattern, activity and inactivity levels, the service aims to provide personalized healthcare with actionable insights to manage chronic diseases and balance calorie in and out. WELT is the most natural wearable for healthcare, and is both fashionable and functional, made for everyday life and everyday outfits. As the stylish alternative to previous belt or fitness trackers, WELT provides the most natural user experience. WELT allows users to check their condition more accurately and take the necessary measures whether by themselves or through healthcare providers.
Result 1: Service Effectivity
According to user testimonials and data, WELT is shown to be actually effective in reducing waist circumference overtime.
Result 2: User Retention Rate
WELT's natural UX and balanced monitoring assures user's continuous use of product than most other tracking devices.
Collaborative Business Model
WELT Smart Belt is distributed through both direct B2C sales and fashion collaboration B2B sales, where in all cases user's health data will be accumulated in WELT data base. WELT utilize this data to research further health insights and advanced algorithm, and provide health partnership service to hostipals, insurance companies, and corporate wellness.
3_ Product Development
Sketch & Wireframes
Product: The major focus was ‘invisibility’ of technology - to hide technology to have finishing look of a fashion item. Also, it was important to show an impression of WELT brand without being visually loud.
Service: Kept minimal depths, simple interface elements, and intuitive UX. It was especially tricky to transfer physical product into graphic element, while eliminating unnessesary procedures. In pairing procedure, the device is automatically waken and ready to pair when user wears the belt, solved by using BLE and Hall sensor. When cutting belt leather to adjust to user's own waist size, user simply applies the same number engraved on leather on to the app.
Test durability and aesthetics by experimenting with various textures of leather
Hardware & Factory Mass Production / Stock storage & Shipping
Managing quality control through all supply chains including: testing functions in PCB, quality controlling injection molded buckle, sensor-embedded leather, package, managing storage and shipping
4_ Marketing & Sales
WELT Film making
Planning storyboards and assist film making and editing.
[B2C] Kickstarter Project
WELT started sales through Kickstarter crowdfunding and achieved more than 250% of the target amount. We shipped majorly to USA, Europe, Japan.
WELT Kickstarter
[B2B] Fashion Collaboration X Beanpole
WELT collaborated with Korean fashion brand Beanpole and is distributed in department stores nationwide.
WELT x Beanpole
WELT Team
As the rate of chronic diseases and following medical expenses increase, it is imperative to take appropriate healthcare to avoid getting the disease in the first place, and to maintain a healthy state by thorough prevention and management. WELT team is devoted to 'invisible healthcare', to make digital healthcare a part of people's daily lives in the most natural manner.
