GEONAUTE 360: Pioneering the future of immersive action video

TL;DR

In 2012–2013, I led UX and interaction design for Geonaute 360, an ambitious 360° action camera developed by Geonaute in collaboration with Giroptic. Though never commercially released, the product was unveiled at CES 2014, where it won “Best Innovation”, was featured at Milan Design Week, and was a finalist at the Decathlon Innovation Awards.

Despite its cutting-edge feature set—360° photos, video, burst mode, timer, and time-lapse—the camera offered a strikingly simple, two-button interface, making it a user-friendly tool for extreme sports and everyday adventurers alike.

The challenge

In the early 2010s, action cameras were booming—but they all had one limitation: they could only film what was directly in front of you. The Geonaute 360 aimed to change that.

With three ultra-wide lenses capturing nearly a full sphere, this was one of the first consumer-ready 360° action cameras. But the novelty of the hardware wasn’t enough. To make it work, we needed to create an experience that was:

  • Simple enough for sport users

  • Powerful enough to support multiple capture modes

  • Intuitive enough to make 360° video feel natural

Our objective

Design an experience that made a complex technology feel simple, fun, and practical—on the field and at home.

Key goals:

  • Define the interaction model for camera and remote

  • Make advanced features usable with just two buttons

  • Prototype and test the end-to-end experience: capture, navigation, and playback

  • Support the project’s CES and internal launch with compelling, testable UX assets

My role

UX & Interaction Designer in a multi-disciplinary product team

I was responsible for:

  • UX research: competitor analysis, personas, use cases

  • Interaction design: button flows, LCD behavior, screen state logic

  • Specifications: detailed keyflows, states, and developer documentation

  • Prototyping: interactive Flash mockups for testing and demos

  • Service design exploration: early wireframes for a multi-platform viewer experience

  • Developer support & QA: follow-up during build and debug phases

Key contribution highlights

  • Delivered a two-button interface that made advanced functionality easy and reliable

  • Shaped the UX for 360° photo, video, burst, timer, and time-lapse capture

  • Built an immersive interactive prototype used for internal testing and global showcases

  • Contributed to the product’s recognition at CES, Milan Design Week, and Decathlon Innovation Awards

  • Helped align industrial design, engineering, and digital experience into a cohesive vision

Design process

1. Research & discovery

  • Analyzed emerging 360° and action cam competitors (GoPro, Ricoh, early DIY rigs)

  • Built personas for core use cases: mountain biking, skiing, travel, etc.

  • Defined user pain points: missed action, complexity, post-processing confusion

  • Developed user journeys grounded in real sports habits and gear usage

2. Interaction design: camera + remote

  • Created a full UX flow for camera and remote with only two physical buttons

  • Prioritized clarity and feedback: easy mode-switching, icon-based cues, looped menus

  • Supported multiple advanced capture modes with minimal cognitive load

  • Designed for field usability: gloves, sunlight, quick confirmation, minimal distractions

  • Documented all screen states and error cases to streamline development

3. Prototyping & testing

  • Built a functional interactive prototype in Flash to test key flows and modes

  • Ran internal and external user tests simulating real-world sports usage

  • Refined interface flows based on direct feedback: confirmation, error-proofing, navigation logic

  • Helped marketing and business teams experience the product pre-launch

4. Companion experience design

  • Proposed wireframes for immersive playback experience across PC, tablet, and smartphone

  • Structured early zoning for the future platform: explore, trim, share, and navigate within 360° videos

  • Ensured a consistent experience from device to screen

Results

Visibility & impact

  • Winner of CES “Best Innovation” 2014

  • Featured at Milan Design Week as a breakthrough in consumer technology

  • Finalist in Decathlon’s annual Innovation Awards, recognizing top projects across all brands

  • Widely praised internally and externally as a category-defining concept

  • Sparked new conversations about immersive design and future-ready UX within Decathlon

User & team impact

  • Delivered a fully testable, demo-ready user journey

  • Built shared understanding between design, engineering, and product teams

  • Advanced Decathlon’s approach to connected hardware UX

Business outcome

  • Although not launched commercially, the project delivered:

    • A visionary product prototype

    • Global recognition and press coverage

    • Foundational experience for future hardware/digital integrations

    • A successful proof-of-concept that pushed internal innovation maturity

What I learned

“Simple is hard—and worth it.”

→ Delivering a two-button interface for a 360° camera taught me the value of focused constraints and clarity under pressure.

“Vision is valuable even without a launch.”

→ The project showed how strong UX can make futuristic tech tangible—and drive impact through demos, awards, and strategy.

“You don’t need 100 features. You need the right 5.”

→ We prioritized what mattered to sport users and built around clarity, trust, and performance in the field.

“Prototypes build alignment.”

→ The Flash prototype made the idea real—aligning business, comms, and tech around a shared experience.

Beyond the brief: going the extra mile

  • Bridged the gap between hardware and digital service design early in the process

  • Designed an experience that felt fun, intuitive, and powerful—even before 360° content was mainstream