Sherlock Homes
Mission
Create a smart home hub app that streamlines the process of controlling and adding smart home devices to your home.
Role
Design Research, Conceptualizing, Wire-framing, Prototyping, Usability testing
Timeline
5 months
Tools
Figma, InVision
Smart homes aren’t smart
When was the last time you installed a smart-home device that was actually easy to set up and didn’t take hours to do the job?
Today the average home carries 16-25 separate devices. That means the homeowner is installing 16 or more different devices, each with their own requirements, over and over…
We deserve to have a proper smart home. With a central intelligence that does that for us and more. After all, aren’t smart homes supposed to make life easier?
A one-time hub for our homes that doesn’t require us to hook up every single device we’ve purchased, separately?
The answer is “Yes.” We deserve this for our smart homes.
We deserve Sherlock Homes!
Problem
Installation of new devices requires individual manufacturer apps, most of which install in different ways; grouping devices together is cumbersome and time consuming; organizing a smart home for a family is almost impossible and smart actions (events based on tracked user behavior) are all manual efforts, and it all takes so much time. The average household has 16-25 connected smart home devices and that is a lot of time spent setting up each one.
Hypothesis
One app to control them all! Sherlock Homes makes onboarding a house to a smart home painless. The current apps are clunky, lengthy, confusing, and time consuming.
Sherlock Homes will make your home smart by easy installation and setup of new devices, rooms, groups and automations, and administrative access for family, friends, home maintenance personnel, and children.
As part of my research I did a Competitive Analysis, Surveys, Interviews and Primary Research.
Competitive Analysis
My first step was to investigate what the competition does and why they do it. My choices for the competition was to focus on the top performers and hubs currently available.
I learned that some of the largest hubs where missing key elements such as child accounts and not having other options for additional users other than ‘admin’. Also, not being able to install devices directly into the given hub is another big issue found lacking.
Big Stats About the Problem
Convenience is the most significant factor in smart home device usage across all demographics (46%).
The majority of users want added security and to make their home more energy efficient.
The smart home market in 2021 was valued at $79 billion and is expected to grow to $314 billion by 2027.
The majority of smart home devices are doorbells, security cameras, and home hubs (ie. Echo, HomePod, etc.).
“To date, the smart home lacks a killer app to drive these experiences but once this is made available, consumer adoption will skyrocket.”
Participate Surveys and Interviews
I recruited 65 participants through my full-time job and co-worker’s friends and family to gather enough data for my findings through surveys.
Demographics showed people who have 20 or more smart home devices are mostly male in their mid 30's making around $150k and living in a 3-4 bedroom house with their domestic partner and at least one child.
Over 80% of people surveyed said it took them anywhere from 8 - 30 minutes or more to install individual smart home devices, which is way too time consuming and incredibly frustrating.
Personas
After all the market research, I was able to create my target audience as “Tucker” to keep me focused as I started creating my designs.
Tucker represents millennials interested in using technology to make the home more efficient. He’s young, married, lives in a single-family home, makes low 6-figures, and appreciates the capabilities that smart home devices can (potentially) offer.
Sam and Patrick represent extremes of this same demographic, where Sam is older and very tech savvy, but not as willing to spend the time and would rather spend money to utilize a smart home. Patrick, alternatively, has less income, is single, and has less use for a smart home (but still wants a smart home).
Interview Findings
MVP Features
Information Architecture
Using the research data I collected, I started planing out the screens that I needed before I jumped into wireframes.
Adding New Devices Flow
This is a walk-through of my thinking for wireframes, user flows and my work getting to high fidelity.
As a user I want to scan for new smart home devices on Bluetooth, add all of the found devices, and add them to rooms and groups.
I wanted to simplify the onboarding flow for adding new devices and to be able to add multiple devices at a time in one step for the user. I created these wireframes to help me learn what the best flow would be.
Initially, I thought Bluetooth installation was as simple as scanning for devices and voila, but I realized that this is not the case.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
I used my interview findings to directly link to what my MVPs were. This helped me make sure I was on target.
This updated sign in screen reflects adding devices quickly via existing smart hub accounts.
In this version I had ‘cancel’ but realized with was unnecessary and removed it later on.
Devices can be added to rooms, and rooms can be assigned (and created) here.
Individual devices at this point require naming; users can click through to edit the label, otherwise naming is automated.
Device “profile” pages offer testing, renaming, and assigning which room the device is in.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Once I figured out the logging in issue, this story became a process of determining the easiest way to set up new and already installed devices on Sherlock.
New User Access Flow
As a user I want to add and invite a new user and provide limited access to my smart home and edit the access options.
The user profile page wasn’t necessary initially, but I thought it was. Users are technically created once an invitation is sent, but it’s up to the new user to create their (personal) profile.
The app, however, will recognize that this person is in fact a user...but that’s more of an engineering concern that I didn’t realize wasn’t relevant to the experience for someone sending an invitation.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Home Page
The Sherlock “homespage” went through many iterations. The biggest challenge was determining what functions users need immediate access to.
What was necessary for V1 was quick access to frequently used devices and active devices.
User testing revealed that having active devices listed was more intuitive for users. I thought mood setting was a great feature to quickly adjust the ambiance like lighting, and users loved it.
Final Draft
Users had difficulty understanding whether or not the doors were in fact locked! The lock symbol wasn’t active, the labels for each door were unclear, and 60% of users just didn’t know if doors were locked or not. I made the lock icons active (displaying open or closed to indicate lock status) and titled each door as the button to select.
Active automations gives the user a quick view of what is running so that they can pause or stop automations as needed. User testing showed that this feature was desirable, especially for people who would have at least several automations for their home.
During user testing, 65% of users stated how often they review notifications related to their smart home devices, especially security and doors, but also minor stuff like battery life on rechargeable devices.
Set up screens for app - Installation (Mid-Fi’s)
The installation process for Sherlock is pretty intensive. I wanted to create a process that was seamless and intuitive. It starts with the Sherlock logo, a cute and witty but serious icon, which animates into the welcome message (screen 2), which animates again into naming your home. This sets the tone as direct and almost concierge-like.
Lessons Learned
I initially wanted the open/closed display for doors to be dead simple (figure 1). But it wasn’t clear!
I learned what people expected to happen through user testing, and discovered that my role as a UXD isn’t about making the decision, it’s about intelligently finding the solution through user testing.
Interaction Design Controllers
Cognitive overload is a huge problem for designing apps, and I struggled with making an already complex process much simpler.
My initial (figure 3) method just had too many options, and even looking at that screen is dizzying.
Eventually I was able to simplify to the final version (figure 4) that removes excess options while still providing everything needed.
Layout and Organization Hierarchy
Then each device must separately be connected to a hub app so it can actually be used within the “smart home“.
This is over complicated, annoying, and way too time consuming.
When I was figuring out how to invite users, I was thinking about it more like an engineer than like a designer.
This was actually pretty useful, because it forced me to consider what is going to happen in the product entirely rather than just what the user see‘s.
I asked additional questions in order to ensure the experience made sense. It was more work, but ultimately more valuable as a result.
We don't actually have a smart home even though it was promised to us over 20 years ago.
What we do have is individual smart devices within the home, and the only thing that makes them smart is internet access.
There is actually nothing smart about them. Maybe we call it a ‘feature home’ instead of a smart home to be more accurate.
There is a huge gap in the desire for a smart home and the smart devices and home hub apps currently available. We‘re just not there yet.
Device makers who don't have their own hub app still require using their own app(s) for installation.
What is the future of this product
The future looks bright! With AI just around the corner (or already here depending on who you ask), smart homes should absolutely predict and offer recommendations for automations, custom behaviors, and more that today have to be made by users individually.
Integrating your calendar with your alarm clock to activate based on traffic conditions, or adjust my home office lighting for when I start or end a Zoom call.
There are tons of use cases for improving the home utilizing existing smart home devices and sensors.
They can detect when certain items are running low and need to be restocked (and possibly even place an order).
They can provide updates for utility usage in real time, along with predictions for what it will cost and offer cost-saving measures.
Those measures can even include purchasing new smart home devices to help save on cost (ie. buying more low-power smart light bulbs).
Eventually the app could minimize utility usage by turning off lights when the user is leaving the room, such as a slow dimming affect.
This could be seen as creepy (lights turning off by themselves and all), but some users will likely appreciate the option.
The sky is really the limit, and this initial version of the app is just the start. I’m excited to see where it will lead!