Adero
The Future of Intelligent Packing. We redefined the second-generation Adero experience by bridging the gap between physical hardware and digital intuition. Using a dual-tagging system (Smart Tags + Taglets), we created a frictionless mobile ecosystem that tracks essentials in real-time. The result is a brand repositioning that celebrates organization over recovery, giving users peace of mind through a proactive, design-led digital service.
Work designed while employed at MATTER
My Role
I led the visual design for Adero’s next-gen ecosystem, transforming a complex two-part hardware system into a seamless digital service. From managing a design team to collaborating with ID and Marketing, I ensured hardware/software cohesion through a rigorous Design Language System. I provided oversight of the app’s visual assets—icons, illustrations, and UI—and provided art direction for motion and UX to ensure a world-class user experience.
"Unusually chic design for a CE product, this hardware works with a similarly sophisticated and well-designed app."
– WIRED
Transitions & Behaviors
Motion played a key role in establishing a personality for the mobile app. We wanted it to feel subtle in motion yet obvious in behavior. Below are a few of the key transitions within the app experience like locating an item, swiping new notifications, accessing the item directory and tapping into an item detail. Presenting the motion prototypes to the client rather than static visual design screens really helped them understand how a user navigates the app.
open find transition
Original App Screens
Below are a few screens from the original Trackr mobile app. Before we began the exploration phase it was understood that the client was changing the name of the company and rebranding everything.
Process & Exploration
The product setup process involved significant complexity, particularly with pairing tags and firmware updates. To reduce cognitive load for users, we decided early on to implement a progressive disclosure approach for the setup experience. We began by wireframing and brainstorming internally, exploring several potential directions. This included creating paper prototypes of the packaging and conducting user and stakeholder testing to ensure our design decisions were well-founded.
Initial Concepts
After sketching and gathering inspiration, and with no established brand identity, our team began exploring a range of design directions. The team, which included myself, a senior UX designer, two industrial designers, and a project manager, collaboratively developed several concepts. We ultimately narrowed our focus to three strong contenders that warranted further exploration. The direction we chose, "Insightful Clarity," underwent significant evolution throughout the design process, but the final outcome remained true to many of the core principles and attributes of the original concept.
Quiet Awareness
Insightful Clarity
Family Friend
Documentation
The final deliverables for the mobile app included comprehensive documentation of the Visual Design Language System, covering design specifications and guidelines, as well as motion and interaction design for both Android and iOS. We provided the necessary assets to our development partner through Zeplin. Additionally, we created a fully detailed, cloud-based design website for Adero using Confluence, a collaborative software platform. This site houses all working files, templates, motion specifications, information architecture (IA), journey maps, and interaction documentation, providing valuable resources for future iterations of the app.
Final Results
The new Adero app is centered around organization. By creating an app that is dynamic from the onboarding to the core screen experiences of managing and finding your items, we’ve created an experience that is unique to each individual by allowing users to streamline their daily routines, thus increasing user engagement. We wanted to make interacting with the mobile app and product feel fresh and personalized. Through fluid transitions, simple visualizations, sound and visual hardware queues, we created a rich and unique experience.
