The problem Facebook sought to solve is one of face-to-face communication; the portal project is an attempt to remove the device from the act of video chatting. Portal and Portal+ are the first true Facebook-produced pieces of consumer electronics. Both devices are meant to be stationary, but the display on the Portal+ can be swiveled between landscape and portrait modes. The engineering team at Kaleidoscope was tasked with designing and developing this rotation mechanism which lives in a tight space envelope due to the tower’s slender form factor.

As one of four engineers working on this project, my involvement throughout the process of taking this mechanism from ideation through DFM was critical to the success of the product. I took ownership of one of the four leading mechanism concepts to further develop and prototype in a rapidly iterative manner. After a period of 8 months, my time at Kaleidoscope drew to a close as I had plans to move back to California. However, I left after building three high-fidelity prototypes that achieved all the product requirements including “delivering a magical user experience.”