Xbox One Out Of Box Experience (OOBE)
2014

CLIENTS
Microsoft | Aquent
RESPONSIBILITIES
Interaction Design | Wireframes | Visual Design
OVERVIEW
When the original Xbox One shipped, it did so with Kinect for Xbox as one product. After a healthy competitive launch against the PlayStation 4, Microsoft decided to sell the Xbox One as a standalone console, and offer the Kinect as a separate accessory to stay cost competitive.

Microsoft was also starting to incorporate a "second screen" tablet experience known as SmartGlass into their ecosystem. The value was to offer additional real-time and supportive content, as well as act as an additional input device through use of digital keyboard and tablet-based mouse.​
PROBLEM
Because of the significant changes made to the product, there needed to be a redesign and reconfiguration of the original Out of Box Experience (OOBE). 

​The OOBE flow is designed to reduce cognitive load significantly by breaking up tasks into discrete chunks. Although there are several pages in the OOBE flow, each one requires a specific action or input from the user. This is helpful for the average customer and has been shown to reduce fatigue significantly.

Additional changes needed to be made that included early customer feedback about: the time it took in order to start playing games compared to other consoles, inconvenience of entering information through gamepad inputs, the Kinect not recognizing them, new EU power option standards, and much more.
APPROACH
I began by studying and recording the timing of the existing OOBE, competitive game consoles, and other award-winning consumer based products. It was important to sit and spend time with user research to gain any additional information that might have been captured during the user studies.

After breaking down the OOBE into discreet chunks, I printed the screenshots to postcard size and began manipulating them around, creating several setups on a physical wall. This not only allowed for great team critics, but allowed others who passed by the wall to give their input as well.

I worked quite closely with the SmartGlass and Kinect teams to help define the best placement and use in regards to the Xbox One setup.  I found the perfect opportunity to teach and inform when designing the loading screens rather than just viewing a mundane "Updating..." and progress bar.
RESULTS
Since the Kinect was not such an important accessory to initially set up, it would now be performed at the end of the setup or when plugged into the console the first time after initial OOBE. SmartGlass could also now be leveraged to input Account Setup with a tablet-based keyboard, and the new Gold Account could be offered and setup in the end as well as to not break from the happy path.

Unfortunately I don’t have access to the quantitative metrics garnered by the changes, but by offsetting certain aspects of the setup to a later time, it allowed the user to start playing their games more quickly.
TOOLS
Illustrator | Photoshop
LINKS
Microsoft SmartGlass Download Page
Xbox One Out-of-Box Digital Setup
USER FLOW
SCREEN SHOTS
ADDITIONAL PROJECTS
Interaction Design
   Global Innovation Exchange Video Wall
   Carnival Safety Assembly
   Lowe's HoloLens Experience
   PACCAR HoloLens Experience
   Stanford Medical School HoloLens Experience
   HoloLens Holograms
   HeadRehab VR Rehabilitation
   Xbox One External Storage
   Xbox One Out of Box Experience
   Xbox One Digital Bundles
   Nissan Pathfinder Kinect Experience
   Planar Architectural Mosaic Displays
   Planar UltraRes MultiTouch Displays
   Autodesk FBX Review - Windows 8
   Sony Pictures Entertainment - Xbox Live App
Visualizations
   Chingay Parade Singapore 2020
   Delphi Automotive Autonomous Copilot
​   Puget Sound Energy Interactive Kiosk
   Boeing 787 Interior Visualizations
   Turn 10 Studios Logo
   Chevron Commercial - Canada
   LG Commercial - Korea
​Games
   Xbox Live Full House Poker
   Blacklight: Tango Down
   America's Army 3
   Microsoft Train Simulator 2
   Forza Motorsport 2
   Forza Motorsport
   Microsoft Game Prototype
   Project Gotham Racing
   NFL Fever 2002
   NFL Fever 2000