GENERAL ASSEMBLEY PROJECT

Secure Connected Home

To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of my client.

My Involvement:

User research and interviews
Competitive Analysis
Identify target market.
Persona Creation based on real users
Defining the product’s purpose
Establishing design direction.
Information Architecture
User Flows
Lo-fi to hi-fi wireframe development
Prototypes development – paper to hi-fi
Testing with users
Iteration and Pivots

Tools:

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Sketch
Online Card Sorting Tools
Online Research Tools
inVision

BACKGROUND

Project completed as part of the General Assembly UX Design Circuit Course

In February of 2019 I started a intensive mentor led 6 week online UX Design Circuits course through General Assembly and completed it in May 2019. The course covers all aspects of UX Design processes focusing on User Centred Design principles, balancing stakeholder expectations with that of the user

The goal was to ensure that my knowledge and experience were still current and valid in a fast changing UX Design environment. I believe in continuous learning and self development and keeping informed of new techniques in your chosen field.

The project I was tasked to do is outlined below

RESPONSIVE INFORMATION SITE

THE PROBLEM

Home owners need a way to understand what a connected home is capable of providing them with, as their current knowledge is somewhat lacking due to limited advertising or are simply lacking knowledge to make an informed decision to remotely secure their homes.

I believe that by developing a connected home consumer information site for curious decision makers in the families we will educate more potential users to convert their homes into secure environments and also adopt non security devices to add to their comfort.

We will know this to be true when we receive positive feedback on the information provided and a rising trend in connected home security conversions.

Research

User

The project’s purpose is in researching the most desirable smart home devices for families, those with kids and without, in order to understand the average knowledge of what smart devices are capable of and the way in which they could transform home life or any concerns or needs it might address. We are also interested in understanding what type of product needs to be built first which could in time fulfil the needs of the average user.

The target audience would consist of middle-class males and females between the ages of 30 and 55 who might have a spouse and possibly have children of any age.

Areas to explore whist doing research include:

User interviews.
User willingness to embrace and invest in connective products and solutions.
The type of technology of interest to users from the above criteria.
Possible concerns regarding Smart Technology, if any.
Smart Home Product Solution Providers Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis

User Interviews revealed: Shared Pain Points

Safety and Security concerns around loved ones, children especially, rated higher than entertainment or gadgets.

Not all participants were knowledgeable about connective homes and smart technology and what the capabilities are in order to secure their properties. Information is needed to explain the possibilities. Their interests are mainly door security (doorbells and to a lesser extent locks), security cameras and remote controlled lights.

“My daughter is a teenager who is alone at home sometimes,
I would like to know who is ringing the doorbell and have
a camera to see if my property is safe whilst I am not there.” – Eman

“Security of my home is my first concern, my son is 9 years
old and I need to know that he is safe when I am not at home.
Security notification and me being able to control the security
of my home remotely would give me peace of mind” – Willem

“I am aware of smart technology and know that Amazon has Alexa
and that Google has something similar……. As a new home owner I am
concerned with Security” – Roger

Storyboarding

To summarise what the user interviews have taught me I created a storyboard to illustrate a scenario where the product might be useful to the user.

PRODUCT FEATURE PRIORITISATION

After gathering information from the user interviews the following information were gathered and sorted into priority sections.

This prioritisation process will give us insight into deciding what the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) will ideally look like.

I will also shed light on features that next versions might include that the users will use, keeping us on track not to create features that are not wanted by users but by the designers, and identify features that would not be viable because of costs, time involved in developing or technical problematic features.

Reflection

Security Doorbell with camera and speaker
Security related concerns surrounding the interviewed users’ homes were of top priority. I believe that the doorbell camera is a very effective starting point to securing your home as this is the front entrance.

Security Cameras
The security camera feature also ticks the box for the Security features user research has supplied. By having cameras outside your property as well as them potentially having sensors which alert you when there is movement in your property is a common feature I believe users would appreciate.

Light Control
A light control will appeal to users especially in winter to have at least one light on when they arrive home, with the remote function they could even wait till they are outside their homes to switch them on. By having control over their lights when they might be away from home a weekend or a holiday, by switching different lights on and off and even automating this would make it seem that the user is at home thereby discouraging burglars.

Before Sort

Sort Results

USER FLOWS

The next step was to map out the user flow for the website.

SITE MAP

Onboarding screens based on Storyboard only visible to new visitors

PAPER PROTOTYPES & WIREFRAMES

The first prototype was done on paper and tested with users to see if the flow of the site made any sense.

The test was successful with no pain points which led me to produce higher definition wireframes with annotations which explains the elements on the screens.

SKETCH WIREFRAMES

Hi-Fedelity Prototypes

Responsive Design

POST USABILITY TEST REFLECTIONS

The post reflections indicated successes and also negative constructive feedback which will all be taken into account when developing the forst working version of the product.

Some points will be added to future versions.