Grey’s anatomy: John Ikeda talks of the Wireless Headset

There’s just some stuff in life that we’ve grown so accustomed to that we no longer bother asking about how they came to be. For something that nestles quite closely to your ear like the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, have you indeed really wondered how it was designed to comfortably fit?

Elle of the Xbox.com blogs was recently able to talk to Industrial Design Lead for Xbox and Zune John Ikeda about the wireless headset, and one of the most interesting things that came up during the interview was the amount of effort the design team took in developing the earloop.

In Ikeda’s words, “it’s like trying to design a one-size-fits-all shoe, for both left and right feet.” It goes without saying that everyone has unique heads and ears. Various curvatures and angles of their ears sticking out of their heads and all those nuances. Time for some trivia:

Did you know that smaller heads generally have ears that stick out more, due to a tighter curvature of the skull? Conversely, huge noggins generally have a flatter curve, making ears flatter against the head. Human ears also grow throughout life, so what fits you now may not fit you ten years from now. Plus, people have hair, glasses, and all sorts of other accoutrements. The team did their best to work with them all.

In total, the developers came up with 25 sizes for the earloop, each having three curvature variations. After some testing, they were able to eliminate all of the sizes and variations into the final two: medium and small. Check out the “Read” link below to learn more of the anatomical process that Ikeda’s team went through.

There’s just some stuff in life that we’ve grown so accustomed to that we no longer bother asking about how they came to be. For something that nestles quite closely to your ear like the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, have you indeed really wondered how it was designed to comfortably fit?

Elle of the Xbox.com blogs was recently able to talk to Industrial Design Lead for Xbox and Zune John Ikeda about the wireless headset, and one of the most interesting things that came up during the interview was the amount of effort the design team took in developing the earloop.

In Ikeda’s words, “it’s like trying to design a one-size-fits-all shoe, for both left and right feet.” It goes without saying that everyone has unique heads and ears. Various curvatures and angles of their ears sticking out of their heads and all those nuances. Time for some trivia:

Did you know that smaller heads generally have ears that stick out more, due to a tighter curvature of the skull? Conversely, huge noggins generally have a flatter curve, making ears flatter against the head. Human ears also grow throughout life, so what fits you now may not fit you ten years from now. Plus, people have hair, glasses, and all sorts of other accoutrements. The team did their best to work with them all.

In total, the developers came up with 25 sizes for the earloop, each having three curvature variations. After some testing, they were able to eliminate all of the sizes and variations into the final two: medium and small. Check out the “Read” link below to learn more of the anatomical process that Ikeda’s team went through.