AI Device & Hardware
Designing the setup flow and on-screen controls for an AI hardware product — partnering closely with engineers to bring the device, the companion app, and the website to life.
Bringing an AI device to life isn't just about the hardware — it's about the moment a person takes it out of the box and it just works. My job was the part you touch: the setup flow in the app and the controls on the screen, designed shoulder-to-shoulder with the engineers building the thing.
Setting the Scene
Sonora is an AI hardware product — a friendly, always-listening device for the home. My role sat at the intersection of the physical product, the companion app, and the website. I owned the device onboarding experience: the app flow that pairs the device, walks the user through permissions and Wi-Fi, and gets them to their first conversation — plus the on-screen controls the device surfaces once it's live.
The Problem
Hardware teams can build incredible technology that still fails at the moment it matters most: setup. The device had real depth — far-field mics, on-device processing, a custom OS — but none of that mattered if a customer couldn't get from unboxing to a working product without frustration. The risk was that the engineering complexity would leak into the experience, turning a delightful product into a support ticket.
What made it hard
- →Pairing a device over Bluetooth, then handing off to Wi-Fi, then authenticating to the cloud — each handoff was a place the flow could break or stall
- →The on-device screen was small and limited, so every control had to earn its place; there was no room for a cluttered settings menu
- →Engineering constraints moved constantly — latency, available memory, and what the firmware could render changed week to week, and the UI had to flex with it
- →Voice-first products are hard to make feel trustworthy; setup is where that trust is either built or lost in the first five minutes
Setup isn't a chore to get through — it's the product's first impression. If the first five minutes feel calm, clear, and human, the customer believes the device itself is calm, clear, and human.
What the Research Revealed
- →Most device returns happen not because the product is bad, but because setup felt broken — the first session predicts long-term retention more than any feature
- →Users mentally divide setup into three moments — connect, personalize, first use — and each needs its own visual rhythm, not one long form
- →On small device screens, recognition beats recall: showing a state visually outperforms describing it in text every time
- →When engineers and designers prototype the handoffs together, the fragile transitions (Bluetooth → Wi-Fi → cloud) get found and fixed before they ever ship
The Approach
I designed the full onboarding arc as a series of small, human moments rather than one long wizard. Pairing happened in the app with clear, animated feedback at every handoff — Bluetooth found, connecting, handing off to Wi-Fi, almost there. The on-device controls were built around a few core actions surfaced as large, friendly targets, with deeper settings tucked one tap away. I worked in tight loops with the firmware and mobile engineers, sitting next to them in prototyping so every transition could be validated against what the hardware could actually deliver.
State-driven pairing flow
Instead of a linear form, the app reflected the device's real state in real time — 'found your Sonora', 'connecting', 'almost ready' — so the user always knew exactly where they were in a fragile, multi-step handoff.
First-use moment as a feature
I designed the first conversation as an intentional onboarding beat, not a side effect. A gentle, guided first interaction taught the device's capabilities without a tutorial — the user learned by doing.
On-screen controls that fit the hardware
The device screen UI was reduced to a few large, glanceable controls — volume, mute, mode — with everything else available but never in the way. Each control was co-designed with firmware to match what the device could actually render at 60fps.
Prototype-the-handoff loop with engineers
The riskiest transitions were prototyped alongside the engineers building them, in the same room, on real hardware — so fragile moments like the Bluetooth-to-Wi-Fi handoff were caught and smoothed before they ever reached a customer.
Design language carried to the website
The warmth and personality I established in the app and on-device UI became the foundation for the website — so the product a customer saw online matched the one that showed up on their counter.
Proving It Out
The setup flow shipped with a completion rate well above the benchmark for connected devices, and first-week retention held strong — a signal that the first five minutes were doing their job. On the website side, the launch carried the same design language into the world, and the team saw strong reserve and waitlist conversion from a presence that felt like a real product company.
- →Setup completion rate landed well above the category benchmark for connected home devices
- →First-week retention held strong, tied directly to the quality of the first-use moment
- →On-device controls stayed under the firmware's render budget at a consistent 60fps
- →The website launch drove strong reserve and waitlist conversion with a design language consistent with the product
Beyond the Numbers
- →Working next to the engineers — not handing off specs — is what let the fragile handoffs get found and fixed before they ever reached a customer
- →The product's personality was decided in setup; the calm, human tone of those first five minutes became the tone of the whole brand
- →Carrying the same design language from the app and device screen onto the website made the product feel whole — online, on the counter, and in your hand it was recognizably the same thing
What I Took Away
This project taught me that on hardware, the interface and the engineering aren't two phases — they're one conversation. The best decisions came from prototyping the riskiest moments side by side with the people building them, in real time, on real hardware. And the design language that emerged from that work didn't just ship on the device; it became the voice of the product everywhere it showed up.
- →On hardware, design and engineering are one conversation — the best decisions come from prototyping the fragile moments together, in real time
- →Setup is the product's first impression; treat the first five minutes as a feature, not a chore to get through
- →A consistent design language across app, device, and website makes a product feel whole and trustworthy
- →Small screens force honesty — when space is scarce, every control has to earn its place, and the result is almost always better
What's Coming Next
The onboarding and controls foundation is now being extended to the next generation of devices in the Sonora family — same design language, same prototyping-with-engineers loop, new form factors. The website continues to evolve alongside the product so the two always feel like one thing.