Interview with HTC’s head designer on experience design

Drew Bamford is the person responsible for making the ITC’s experience design – how the company’s devices feel and work like ‘HTC phones’ rather than just another Android handset.

HTC’s head designer’s purvue is focused on the digital part of the phone – the experience design of which the company calls HTC Sense. This incorporates HTC’s custom version of Android – which features an innovative apps module on the home screen that changes what shortcuts it displays based on where you are and a Highlights feed that brings together prominent information from your social networks.

Neill Bennett, editor of Digital Arts, sat down with Drew on his recent visit to London to discuss his approach to phone interface and experience design, how you design something that’s better than Google’s, and how you design interfaces for those used to similar-but-distinctly-different ones (like other Android variants and Apple’s iOS). They also talked about HTC’s recent moves into VR with its Vive headset and controllers, and how to design phones for the very different expectations of users in Asia.