In October 2017 Bowers & Wilkins launched its first noise canceling headphones alongside a mobile app for iOS & Android.
YEAR
Designed at Bowers & Wilkins in 2017
ROLE
Design, Direction, Product
TOOLS
Sketch, Zeplin, inVision, Principle, Illustrator, Photoshop
When I joined this project, the early design phase had already started. Since the general concept and features were already in place, my role was to take the wireframe designs further and iterate. My first task was to build the interface and visual direction for the iOS app, and continued my work to flesh out the interface details, prototype flows, and refine the visual designs.
My first task was to come up with a visual direction for the app. The problem was that Bowers & Wilkins had no style guide & formal brand guidelines, so I did research to discover existing visual designs.
I started my research with the discovery phase and inspirations, moodboards, understanding the stakeholders, the users, and the market as well as asking questions to understand the problems we are trying to solve with this app. After my findings, I decided to stick with the basics of classic Bowers & Wilkins brand, while trying to give a refresh and modern feel to attract new customers.
Early explorations on general layout and visual directions
Early explorations on dashboard designs
Early protoype for Home and Dashboard
I love bringing ideas to life through prototyping. I created rough prototypes early on so I can interact with my designs and share with other people to test out the flow. This is how I learn to improve my designs, whether it's the user interface or the interaction — it's a key part of my process.
We started with three items tab bar navigation to break down the pages into Home, Help, and Account, then added the fourth feature for Personal EQ. I explored different iconographies for the nav bar.
Tab bar: to label or not to label questions.
Headphones icon study
Iterations on tab-bar navigation icons — also tested in actual phone to evaluate contrast, visibility, readability.
Since our product is global and available in many countries, it's important to think about how other languages affect the user interface and layout. There are a few guidelines I follow while designing for internationalization such as not using text in images and to leave room for translations.
Screenshots in French, Japanese and Russian from the App Store screens.
Even though we use dynamic text in the code to support different languages, I still like to design in other languages to see how it affect the UI and to uncover and address problems early.
We shipped our products in October 2017 and the app is available on the App Store and Play Store in 8 languages.
"You can fine-tune the noise-canceling experience to match your surroundings via a sleek mobile app."
—Stefan Vazharov read about it here.
Within the time constraints, we finished designs and development on time, alongside working with the hardware product teams.
I collaborated throughout the whole process and made sure that designs get implemented and made the process as smooth as possible while working with different teams in different time zones and continents.
Awards —
What Hi-Fi? 2017 Wireless headphones – Product of the year
EE Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2017: Best headphones
Press —
CNET – Best Noise-Canceling Headphones for 2018
Digital Audio Review (DAR) 2017 Product of the Year
The Verge – The Best Wireless Headphones to Buy
T3 Best Headphones
2018 Top New Technology (TNT) Awards – Home Theater / Multi-Room Audio / Video: Bowers & Wilkins PX Headphones
Bowers & Wilkins PX review: ANC and audiophile talents combine in these knock-out over-ears
Cutting The Cord For A Wireless Audio Work Environment
Sound and Vision – Bowers & Wilkins Shows Its First Noise-Canceling Headphone
The Verge – Bowers & Wilkins PX Review: Wireless Noise Canceling Nirvana
Gizmodo – Bowers & Wilkins' New Noise-Cancelling Wireless Headphones Blew My Mind
The Bowers & Wilkins PX wireless headphones are the street-style stars of the audio world
Best Wireless Audiophile Headphones
Perfect sound forever: The UK venues in pursuit of audio excellence
More Projects
Imgur Accolades • Celebrating the bestProduct Design, Web, Apps, Illustrations, UX Research
Imgur Emerald • A new subscription productProduct Design, Web, Apps, Branding, UX Research
Melee • Designing for gaming communityProduct Design, iOS, Android
Bowers & Wilkins Home • Creating a seamless setup experienceProduct Design, iOS, Android, Animation, Illustration
Bowers & Wilkins PXProduct Design, iOS, Android, Iconography
Bowers & Wilkins App IconIcon Design
Flickr iPadMobile App Design, iPad
Flickr iPhone RedesignMobile App Design, iPhone
Snapshots • Design snippetsVisual, Interaction, Animation
Copyright © 2025 Gabriele Angeline. All Rights Reserved.