FREELANCE CLIENT PROJECT

Reimagine Home Security Through
Smart System.

Project Highlights.

Ezviz Inc. is a smart lifestyle brand that specializes in security devices. The company plans to design a TV app. Instead of a simple transformation from mobile to TV, they envision something different: A design solution that aligns with realistic scenarios and user groups for the market in China.

My involvements in this projects include conducting extensive market research to understand the current design trend for TV interfaces, conducting semi-structured interviews with target users to study their pain points of living alone, and designing user flow/interactions that allow the target users to monitor the home security at the door while watching TV at living room.

Our team pitched the final design proposal to the client, and received positive feedback on adopting our design recommendations.

See Client Feedback Here

Time Frame: July 2020 to Aug. 2020 (6 Weeks)
Involvement: User Research, Experience Design, Visual System
Team: 3 Designers, 2 Researchers

. Overview

CONTEXT

The parent company of Ezviz Inc., Hikvision, is the world leading IoT solution provider, dedicating itself to creating a safe, convenient and smart life for users through its intelligent devices, cloud-based platform, and AI technology. Ezviz currently has a mobile app for users to control and access home smart devices. To avoid just transforming existing features on the phone to TV, the company partnered with my UX class to seek some fresh ideas.

OUR SOLUTION

To highlight Ezviz's specialty in controlling smart home devices and video surveillance, we chose the elders as our major user group and designed a scenario allowing users to conveniently open the door right at their TVs while ensuring their safety at home.

Final Designs

Smart Door Bell System
We present this Smart Doorbell System as an example of controlling the smart home technology via Ezviz’s TV app. In this scenario, we highlight safety and convenience.
Smart Home Visualization
We imagine the TV as the “smart home hub” that user could easily access the most important information as well as controlling other smart devices at home.

. Discovery

Kick-off

Our client did not give us a specific design scope at the beginning stage of the project. Without knowing the scope and the scenario we would be focusing on. We explored 3 potential user groups in order to learn the importance of TV and how it could aid them in their daily lives.

Members of an Extended Family
The Elders
👍
Parents of Little Kids

So... why did we choose the elders as our target user group?

27.9%
of China's population will be empty-nesters by 2050.

Unlike seniors in North America, who are comfortable moving to nursing houses, most Chinese seniors reject to “leave their homes.” According to Sciendo, in the near future, around 90% of the retired population in China will take care of themselves at home, where “smart retirement” plays a crucial role. By 2050, there will be around 0.5 billion seniors (> 60 years old) live in China.
The fact is old people living alone have been a major problem for many Chinese families. The level of inconvenience in life drastically increases when people get old. They are questioned if they are still able to live alone.

. Research

Most fundamentally, we had to ask, what do the elders struggle in their daily lives at home?

Through our in-depth semi-structured interview with 7 people, we found out that most of them suffered from amnesia, decreased mobility, deteriorated senses, and low level of literacy. But most importantly, we figured that they often concerned about home security issues when encountering visitors.

I know I have to take care of myself when my kids are away. But constantly getting up and walking to the door to greet with people, sweeping underneath the table, and doing all other house works ... are all challenges I am facing everyday.
Song, 70 years old
A retired elementary school teacher who lives alone
My old mom hardly ever hear the doorbell rings. Even if she hears and walks to the door, she cannot recognize who outside is through the tiny peep hole but sometimes still open the door to check who it is. I am so worried if she is gonna bump into some strangers.
Mei, 36 years old
A working professional
It is so creepy if someone knocks the door at night, and I am afraid to walk to the door to check who it is, and I am not sure what to do besides anxiously sitting on the couch and waiting for the person to go away!
Lee, 67 years old
A retired worker who lives with his husband

In addition the elders’ physical problems, they often complain about their poor experience with technology. For example, when encountering a new technological product, it takes a long time for them to learn and to adapt. Concluding from the research, the elders wish to take care of themselves independently while avoiding worries from their children who do not live with their parents. Therefore, we envisioned that our solution should be accessible, which means that they could use the product without assistance.

How Might We

design a smart TV app with the feature that ensures home security when greeting visitors?

. Ideation

Safety is the top priority.

Aligning with our client's value and core mission of "creating a safe, convenient, and smart life for users through our intelligent devices," we integrated their IoT products into our design.

USER JOURNEY

Traditional Flow
Greeting visitors without smart doorbell system
Ideal Flow
Greeting visitors with smart doorbell system

INTERACTION FLOW

In the journey of greeting visitors, our solution should focus on convenience and safety. Because the the final product would be a TV app, I am also responsible for sketching out the interfaces of the remote control in addition to TV.

Highlighted Design Element

Floating window on the top right corner providing the most discoverable but non-disruptive experience while watching TV
Voice control provides an accessible way for users to converse with the visitors at the door

Safety is the top priority.

Remote control follows the traditional design convention: simple interface with icons allows users to recognize accessing the main functions.

Interaction Flow

Iteration &
Testing

We throughly thought about the aspect of accessibility. However, after a round of low-fidelity prototyping, a couple of points are still need to be improved based on users' feedback.

Feedback 1

I cannot read the text. It is easily for me to press things wrong. Sometimes I cannot hear what the visitor says clearly."

In order to make sure the interaction flow is easy to follow, especially for users who are of low literacy, we added icons on each button besides text and reminders on where to click to send voice messages. The purpose is to smooth the elders’ learning curve and to make our design more adaptable and intuitive. We also made sure that the voice from the visitors could be transcribed into text for those who have hearing problems.

Feedback 2

What if I wanted to contact my family member if I do not know how to deal with strangers or dangers? Are there any contact options besides emergency? "

Through testing, we learned that users also would like to contact with family members besides emergency if they encounter dangers. Refining our low-fidelity prototype, we added a page including a contact list of the users’ family members. We understand that the elders do not want to remember a list of long numbers and to dial them accordingly, so in here, we made sure that the contact numbers are pre-saved in the app setting.

Feedback 3

I would like some time to walk to the door to greet visitors after confirming opening the door."

Because of the elders’ decreased mobility, here we added a buffer timer to make sure that there is enough time for the users to walk to door or to decide whether to cancel opening the door or not.

Final Design

A more convenient way to get to the door

"Hello! who is outside?"

Users could easily monitor the situation outside by clicking through the floating window when there is someone knocking the door.

Don't want to get to the door immediately? Let's talk to the person outside!

By pressing the voice control button on the remote control, one can speak to the visitor directly. Because Chinese delivery companies usually personally hand over packages, and now the user could remain sitting comfortably on the couch and speak through the TV: “just leave my package at the door, thanks!”

Feeling unsure? Let's call someone!

On the contact page, there is a shortcut that allows the user to immediately call family members, trustworthy community member, or the police in the case an unknown visitor or an emergency.

Moving Smart Control onto TV

Besides the main user flow, We also designed and iterated the home page based on the original mobile version of Ezviz. For the home page, I reviewed iOS TV design guidelines, and our entire group studied several TV systems of competitors, including Xiaomi, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung SmartThings, and Apple TV.

VISUAL SYSTEM

In this team, I was responsible for organizing the design guidelines as well as interface components for the rest of the team members.

Client Feedback

I really appreciate your design focused on the elderly population, which is an important consideration for the Chinese market demographics. The presented scenario was also very realistic, specific to what the elderly would need. Would other user groups of other ages be able to use this too?
Minjie W. — Product Manager
Ezviz. Inc, China
The idea of speaking into the mic on your remote control to communicate with your visitor is really cool. But this might not be possible in the short-term because most remote controls don't have a mic.
Selena Y. — Product Designer
Ezviz. Inc, China

Features that our client would like to adopt from our designs:

  • Visitor's audio transcribed to text
  • Project the surveillance on the TV
  • Reminders from different smart home devices on the top right floating window

Future
Considerations

Because Ezviz Inc. is well-known for its IoT ecosystem and smart devices control, we also brainstormed ideas regarding how users could control the home surveillance. What if the elders’ kids need to know the situation of their parents’ home security all the time? Our future vision of design is to connect the TV app with mobile.

. Reflections

My most favorite part of this project is to think about designing inclusively with an empathetic heart on the elders. This experience reminds me of my childhood experience of living with my grandparents: Having a little dream of building stuff that makes their old age better!

In addition, this is my first experience design project that I had opportunities to communicate with our client and to learn their product needs. It is also my first experience of designing user interfaces on TV platform. I absolutely learned a lot by communicating with client, building empathy on the elders, and familiarizing with TV design and usage conventions.

We initially thought of including many features that could address common issues of the elders, such as reminders to take medications, smart stove tops connected with TV system that shows states of cooking and that helps the elders to avoid overcooking and causing accidents in the kitchen. However, due schedule limitations, we only had opportunities to work on the specific flow of smart doorlock system, which could potentially address the safety concerns for most of the elders in China.

↑
←

DailyUp Mobile UI/UX Design

10-week User-centered Design & Evaluation
Academic Project
→

LiquidLab Web Landing Page

Visual Web Design and Brand Identity
‍Remote -week Client Work
© 2022
© 2023 Featured on Bestfolio
LinkedIn
Behance