HMD FUSION X1
Fitness
User experience
User Interface
Web Design
London
2023
A system-level approach to parental controls, built to deliver consistency, trust, and scalability across enterprise ecosystems.
Summary
As children outgrow smartwatches, families look for the next step—but traditional smartphones often fail to balance safety with independence. This project focused on designing a teen-ready smartphone experience with built-in parental controls, helping parents feel confident while giving teens the freedom they expect.
In collaboration with global partners including Samsung and HMD Global, we led the UX/UI design across the full product journey—from onboarding and activation to everyday use. The result was a seamless, scalable experience that works across multiple sales channels and meets both user and business needs.
Challenge
Designing this product required balancing the needs of two very different user groups. Parents needed strong, reliable control and visibility, while teens expected a device that felt modern, personal, and unrestricted. Building trust through design was critical, especially in a market where many existing solutions were either too easy to bypass or too restrictive to gain long-term acceptance.
The purchase and onboarding experience also presented challenges, as it varied across webshop, retail, Amazon, and telecom channels. This inconsistency introduced friction at a key moment in the journey. In addition, the project involved collaboration across teams in Europe and Asia, bringing together different technical constraints, expectations, and product standards.
Solutions
The approach focused on creating a balanced experience that supports both control and independence without compromising usability. Parental controls were designed to be integrated at a deeper system level, making them more reliable while remaining simple and intuitive for parents to use. At the same time, the experience for teens was shaped to feel natural and empowering, avoiding the sense of restriction often associated with similar products.
The onboarding and activation flow was streamlined across all sales channels to reduce friction and ensure a consistent first-time experience regardless of where the device was purchased. Throughout the process, close collaboration with product and engineering teams helped ensure that solutions were feasible, aligned with partner ecosystems, and scalable across regions.
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