SmoothWave Challenge

01 BACKGROUND

Boston Scientific is a global medical device company. Their SmoothWave product is a pain control technology, and they needed a compelling way to explain it to people at trade shows and live events. Turning the demo into a game made a complex medical concept feel fun and approachable without dumbing it down.

02 PROBLEM STATEMENT

At a busy trade show, you only have seconds to grab someone's attention. A clinical or text heavy demo would not work. Boston Scientific needed a visual experience that could communicate how SmoothWave works, why it is better, and what the brand stands for, all at once.

03 PROJECT GOAL

The goal was to create a visual system that made gameplay feel exciting and immersive while keeping the Boston Scientific brand front and center. Everything needed to be instantly readable for someone standing and interacting with a screen in a loud, busy environment.

05 DESIGN PROCESS

I came into the project after the wireframes were reviewed and approved by the team, so the content structure was already in place. My job was to take that foundation and build a full visual experience on top of it.

VISUAL DIRECTRION

I designed two distinct gameplay themes. The warm anatomical version used rich copper and brown tones to make the spinal cord visualization feel visceral and immersive. The blue SmoothWave version reinforced the brand at exactly the moment the technology advantage was on screen. The particle wave background was a deliberate nod to both the SmoothWave branding and the way the device works on nerves, giving the experience a visual language that felt directly connected to the technology. The scoreboard leaned fully into the Boston Scientific brand with a deep blue palette, clean table layout, and both logos prominently placed.

GAME PLAY EXPERIENCE

Color did a lot of the storytelling during gameplay. Red meant pain and penalty, green meant successful treatment and positive scoring, so players could understand what was happening without stopping to read anything. The spinal cord visualization stayed centered and dominant, with the pain meter, score display, and comfort meter combined into one horizontal strip at the bottom so players could check their status at a glance. Pain point indicators used a color shift from red to orange to yellow to show treatment progress, and the green bounding box in SmoothWave mode showed the expanded coverage area instantly without needing an explanation.

05 CHALLENGES

Building everything from scratch with only basic brand guidelines to work from was the biggest constraint, and delivering two polished themes plus a scoreboard within one to two weeks made fast decision making essential.

06 FINAL OUTCOME

Two complete gameplay themes and a branded scoreboard were delivered on a tight timeline, all built from scratch as an agency concept project. The warm anatomical theme brought medical realism to the experience, while the blue SmoothWave theme reinforced the brand at the exact moment the technology advantage was on screen. Together they gave the kiosk a consistent visual identity that served both the player experience and the brand.

WHAT I LEARNED

The kiosk gave Boston Scientific an engaging, on brand way to demonstrate SmoothWave technology at live events and trade shows. 

LESSONS

This project taught me that even a technical medical product can be turned into something exciting and fun with the right visual approach. 

NEXT STEPS

The next step was to present the final designs to the client, gather their feedback, and refine based on their approval before moving into production

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