SmartHome — Telus Home IoT Ecosystem
Client
Telus, Canada's most-awarded network and telecommunications company, offers a variety of services to keep users connected. Their latest venture into the IoT home security industry further expands their comprehensive portfolio of services.
High Level Goal
We partnered with Telus to redesign and expand their current SmartHome app, incorporating their latest IoT home security system to enhance the user experience. This initiative includes support for their first-party devices and prepares the path for expanding product compatibility.
They aimed to utilize their existing design system to enhance their current application and expedite their product development process.
My Role
As a Senior Product Designer at Very, I partnered with Telus' Product Owner, stakeholders, and engineers to develop the next generation of the Telus home ecosystem app. Leading the design and working alongside other designers, we focused on features such as onboarding, device pairing, home device management, and troubleshooting.
By collaborating with cross-functional teams and facilitating workshops, I gathered feature requirements, assessed technical feasibility, conducted user research, and advocated for Telus' SmartHome product strategy. Our goal was to provide a unified experience across their ecosystem of services.
Tools
Figma
Maze
Mobbin
Stark
Our Approach
Understanding the Challenge: Conducted an in-depth Diary Study to understand user experiences with IoT devices, identifying pain points and frictions. Analyzed major home ecosystems (Apple, Google, Amazon) to find common patterns and capabilities, focusing on energy consumption data. Developed target personas (Senior Homeowners and Tech Natives) to inform feature scoping for the SmartHome Version 1 app, enhancing user adoption and minimizing learning curves.
Analyze, Ideate, Prioritize: Strategically mapped and prioritized core features for smart home app development, aligning with Telus’s objectives. Developed a framework for incremental enhancements and automated actions, emphasizing user-centricity and security. Established design principles ensuring a seamless, scalable, and unified user experience across devices, reflecting Telus’s commitment to excellence.
Design through Collaboration: Led the design process by creating comprehensive journey maps for various hardware products, emphasizing user experience and functionality. Implemented Telus's established design system to ensure consistency across platforms and channels, enhancing user engagement and satisfaction.
Introduced features like Home Overview and Widgets, Simplified Onboarding, Doorbell Device Enhancements, and Intuitive Light Controller to streamline user interaction and improve device management. Developed Automation Builder and Routine Finder to empower users to automate tasks effortlessly and customize routines, driving efficiency and convenience in smart home management.
Setting Up for the Future: Telus remains dedicated to enhancing and expanding the SmartHome product ecosystem, prioritizing user experience and innovation. By introducing new features and supporting additional devices, Telus aims to create a unified platform for seamless device and service management, ensuring an unparalleled user experience.
Understanding the Challenge
We began our research with an in-depth Diary Study to gain insights into various user experiences that extend beyond what can be observed on a screen. From selecting an ecosystem of IoT devices to setting up and connecting them to our homes, we aimed to thoroughly understand the pain points and frictions users face with current market alternatives, and how we can mitigate these issues.
We analyzed a range of products from major home ecosystems (Apple, Google, Amazon) to identify patterns and differences among them. We examined their capabilities and the data they provide, particularly regarding energy consumption. This study revealed common patterns across these three major brands, which we plan to incorporate into our future product. While differentiating Telus from its competitors, we recognize that adopting established patterns can minimize the learning curve and enhance user adoption, especially for users familiar with one of these ecosystems.
Based on our initial research, we defined our ideal target personas, understanding their behaviors, pain points, and needs. This process allowed us to scope a set of features for the SmartHome Version 1 app that fulfills user needs while maintaining the product vision and adding value to each experience and interaction between the UI and physical devices.
We identified two primary target personas for this new application: Senior Homeowners and Tech Natives.
Senior Home Owners
Typically have low tech expertise.
Usually seniors who want to enhance home protection and prefer having all
products and systems under one trusted brand.
Long-time Telus customers who trust the brand's expertise.
Require assistance with provisioning and installing devices.
Need an easy way to stay informed about events occurring in their home.
Tech Natives
Have a mid to high tech expertise
Have prior experience with IoT devices.
Capable of installing, handling, and maintaining devices.
Seek advanced capabilities and customization options.
Look for automated actions to reduce repetitive tasks in their lives.
With these two target personas clearly defined, we have a strategic path to provide value for both customer segments. By understanding their needs and desires, we can create an ecosystem that unifies all their home security systems and integrates other IoT devices, ensuring a seamless and valuable user experience.
Analyze, Ideate, Prioritize
Based on our initial research of various home ecosystems, we identified a series of core features essential for any home app, as well as baseline experiences needed to support each product category. We conducted a brainstorming workshop to map out and prioritize all potential features for the smart home app, aligning them with Telus’s business goals and objectives. We prioritized these features based on immediate business goals, user adoption, and technical feasibility, ensuring that we deliver product value through incremental application and feature enhancements.
From these workshops, we determined the minimum set of baseline features necessary to support the range of hardware devices and app experiences in the initial phase. Automated actions emerged as a key component of our roadmap. We aimed to create baseline and common automated actions while defining a framework that allows for incremental capability enhancements, maintaining low complexity in setting up these actions. For security, we recognized that users need to be informed at all times about their home’s status, whether they are away or at home. Thus, we focused on developing a robust security video system and alert mechanism.
Telus’s vision was to create a scalable product for the future. To achieve this, we established design principles that guide our design decisions and ensure a unified vision for the user experience across all features and interactions between the app and devices. Here are some of our established principles:
Any supported device. One superior experience.
Clearly Telus, better and better.
We promise a reliable and remarkable experience for you.
Complete over comprehensive.
These principles serve as the foundation for our design process, ensuring we deliver a smart home app that meets user needs, supports a wide range of devices, and aligns with Telus’s strategic objectives.
Design through Collaboration
We began our design process by defining the journey map for various hardware products. This involved mapping the features and user journeys, identifying their onboarding process, and the creation of automated actions.
Telus has previously established a design system that unifies the experience across different platforms. This system includes a comprehensive set of components and guidelines that facilitate adherence to established design patterns and maintain a cohesive experience across all channels.
Home Overview and Widgets
Home overview provides a high level view of all devices at home, with a favorites section with quick access to user's most used devices as well as components that we called widgets, we wanted to create a varity of widgest that provides information to the user such as energy usage based on connected devices to the ecosystem and internet data usages so users can have a unified view of both devices and services.
Simplified Onboarding and Device Control
We aimed to provide a seamless experience for onboarding devices, recognizing this as a critical step where significant friction can occur. Based on our research, we implemented low-energy Bluetooth technology, similar to Apple's approach with AirPods, to automatically recognize devices within the app. With just a few taps, users can set up their devices within the ecosystem.
Doorbell Device Features
The doorbell device offers a straightforward interface for viewing the livestream from the doorbell camera, along with basic stats like signal strength and battery level for battery-powered devices. It allows users to lock and unlock the door if a door lock is detected within the app, and includes push-to-talk and automatic response features for times when users are unavailable or away from home. To provide a comprehensive record system, we designed an intuitive menu for viewing past clips, highlighting important events through on-device processing, and translating these events into plain text.
Intuitive Light Controller
Our intuitive light controller enables users to manage specific lights within the house, customize colors using a preset list or a color wheel, and create themes that cycle through colors over time to set a mood. The lights can also be scheduled based on actions, such as an away mode where some lights stay on to make the house appear occupied, or an arrival routine that turns on lights upon the user's return home.
Automation Builder and Routine Finder
The Automation Builder enables users to automate one or multiple devices based on defined parameters and conditions. We aimed for a low-complexity builder using a common "if (condition is met) then (trigger defined action)" pattern, making it easy for users of all tech expertise levels to customize and orchestrate their actions with minimal effort and time.
Additionally, we introduced the Routine Finder, which offers a series of pre-defined routines that users can customize as a starting point, eliminating the need to start from scratch. We plan to launch a Community Finder where users can upload and share their routines, allowing others to adopt these routines and save time in creating their automated actions.
Setting Up for the Future
Looking ahead, Telus's focus remains on the continual improvement and expansion of the SmartHome product ecosystem. This involves enhancing existing features and introducing new ones, as well as supporting more devices to broaden the ecosystem. The aim is to provide users with a unified platform for managing devices and Telus services, ensuring a seamless user experience.
With established design principles, a clear product vision, and a strategic strategy, Telus continues to expand its home ecosystem. By adopting new IoT technologies and industry patterns, Telus strives to provide intuitive user experiences that align with its overall vision of service and user-centric approach. Telus's goal is not only to meet but to exceed user expectations, setting new standards for excellence in the smart home industry.
Results
Telus introduced their SmartHome V1 with a comprehensive set of features, enabling them to scale their business further. With a solid foundation of principles and strategy, they incorporated a powerful automation builder, facilitating the introduction of new actions. Moreover, they developed interaction patterns adaptable to any hardware Telus plans to support in the future.
Reflection
Having thoroughly explored the home ecosystem of products and acquired insights into user perspectives, pain points, and desires, helped me provide a better approach for the next generation of the Telus home ecosystem. I am grateful for the opportunity to provide the optimal experience to countless users throughout Canada within the comfort of their homes.
