In 2013, even though the recognized practice of the selfie was growing exponentially, the smartphone market was struggling to follow that trend and companies were still releasing phones with poor front camera and sensor quality.

After more research on the use of the front camera for selfies and for video calls, I had the great opportunity to tackle this project at HTC. The end goal was to recreate a film set for your smartphone: Sound, Camera, Lights, Tripod.

The biggest challenge during the ideation and later on during the engineering development was to integrate all the elements located on the top of the phone.

The top front of the phone integrates proximity sensors, a dual LED flash, a 13MP front-facing camera with a back-illuminated sensor, a speaker, and a microphone. The top back of the phone integrates another 13MP camera with a back-illuminated sensor, a dual LED flash, and a microphone. Let's add to the mix a headphone jack and make the phone waterproof.

Dual-color design in an ergonomic, grip-friendly shape will fit your hand with ease and please your eyes with a 5.2" screen. The HTC Desire Eye is IPX7 water-resistant but only 8.5mm thick.

Free your hands while watching movies and take superior selfies, all with the dual-purpose HTC Stand Case. The protective shield easily flips open to convert your smartphone into a hand-free mini theater or camera stand.

During the development of this project, I worked alongside the software UX design team to develop innovation around front camera use. The Face Tracking feature was especially interesting as it would crop the image during video calls to follow the user's face or up to four people thanks to its higher definition front-facing camera and sensor.

The phone was launched on the market in October 2014 and was really well received. Below is a video review of the phone by Android Authority and also a video behind the scenes at HTC Design.