Redefining a generation

Responsibilities

• User Research
• UX Design
• UX Testing
• Visual Design

Project Goal

Scarlett 3rd Gen was the most successful sub-$500 audio interface of all time. We just had to follow it up and make it better still.

Research

We surveyed ~20,000 musicians and content creators and ran tens of user interviews across a wide range of user types and needs.

In doing so—and in support of some of our hypotheses—we learned that there were still many areas we could improve the design for Scarlett 4th Generation beyond technical performance, such as:

• Helping musicians set the input gain (recording level) of an instrument so it was not too loud (that it would distort or “clip”) or too quiet.
• Building in protections that would ensure audio quality was maintained even if an input was too loud.
• Making the hardware fully accessible to blind or visual impaired users.
• Improving the aesthetic design of the product

Design and Testing

With seven product in the range, we iterated a lot. Alongside Mino Kodama, the other Senior Product Designer on the project, and the Product Manager, we developed, evaluated, and tested hundred of concepts.

This resulted in a product that introduced many new features, such as:

Reception and Success

Scarlett 4th Gen ensured that the Scarlett range is still the leading seller the sub-$500 audio interface category. It received outstanding reviews and is the default product recommendation from most retailers whenever a customer comes into the store looking to record.

Learn more about Scarlett 4th Gen here.