Austin, Texas, USA
The Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset (AW920H) by Dell Technologies’ Experience Innovation Group designers is the latest in their Legend series bringing the latest technology into a sleek form.
The Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset (AW920H) design is characterized by its clean and iconic earcup design that showcases the Alienware brand and builds on the legacy of the Legend 1.0 design language headsets.
The evolution of the Legend 2.0 design language on Dell’s latest peripherals products follows strategic experience tenets: Gaming Continuum; Premium Performance; Elevated Interactions.
The Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset (AW920H) has recently been awarded a 2022 Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The team created the headset to fit into the Legend 2.0 design family while taking significant steps to evolve the product experience and still cover all the core requirements of a great gaming headset.
The new design enables an effective product architecture, differentiated usability, and makes the headset: more versatile – with cleaner/more mature aesthetics for wear indoors/outdoors and across contexts; more efficient – by fitting more/better/smarter tech in a smaller/lighter package; simpler – by distributing controls across touch (for contextual and on-the-go features) and mechanical interfaces (for the fundamental/critical controls).
The earcup directional exhaust protrusion provides guidance to orient the headset for easy handling/mounting.
Plugs and ports openings are hidden in the inner black pill opening of the exhaust shape to provide visual and haptic queues as to where to plug/unplug the charging cable and boom mic, while keeping the headset design free of cutouts.
The soft surfacing of the earcup enables interaction and grip into one seamless shape.
Zoning of the touch-enabled area on the inner surface (including behind the alien head logo) was calibrated to provide the right amount of access for contextual on-the-fly interactions.
The outer earcup area provides room for grip and access to natural thumb access mechanical/tactile controls.
Headset articulation and headband deformation have been repeatedly simulated and tested to provide the best fit/range and comfort.
New attention was placed on designing directly on a 3D human head to consider the product’s deformation and shape when worn.
This allowed for the creation of a form factor that on top of enabling top-tier performance and gaming features, fits snuggly close to the head and provides a modern style.
While this top-tier headset contains full gaming and lifestyle features (including tri-mode connectivity, active noise cancellation, removable boom mic, and on-board mic, touch controls, AFX branding, 40mm drivers, 7.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos.), the product architecture was carefully considered during the ideation/exploration phases to deliver a compact and lightweight design, fit for modern gaming in any context and across any platform.
Project: Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset (AW920H)
Designers: Experience Innovation Group, Dell Technologies Inc.
Manufacturer: Dell Technologies Inc.