Linksys App
Linksys Aware
I helped create the first-ever mesh WiFi motion sensing technology as a paid subscription service within the Linksys App.
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The core project goal was to present motion sensing data from a user's existing WiFi in an easy to use format, and allow users to get more out of their experience with Linksys mesh WiFi technology.
Company /
Linksys
Role /
Senior UX Designer
My Role
I was one of three UX designers and two UI designers who designed the entire customer experience from scratch. I led brainstorms, created personas, sketched wireframes, developed prototypes, conducted weekly user testing sessions, documented functionality, and worked closely with with our development team all the way across the world in Vietnam to ensure that the app functioned exactly the way it was designed.
The Reception
Linksys Aware has won several awards, including:
Innovation Award Honoree:
Software and Mobile Apps
Newsweek: Best of 2020
Best in Show 2020
"What sets Linksys’ tri-band Velop system apart from the competition right now is the Linksys Aware feature."
"The Linksys Velop line has been a go-to mesh router recommendation, but recently it has become even more useful with the addition of Linksys Aware, an add-on security service that allows your routers to monitor for motion in your home."
Research
It was important for us to understand our user on a fundamental level. How could we offer a WiFi motion sensing product that delivered a great customer experience, and lay a strong foundation for further improvements in future phases?
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We wanted to be first to market, which meant we had a limited amount of time for research and exploration. However, we didn't let that stop us from conducting a large competitive analysis of adjacent products such as smart home cameras and motion detectors to see what we liked and didn't like about their user experience. We also took every opportunity we could in weekly user testing sessions to ask users about how we could improve the features they were testing and make them more applicable to their lives.
The Concept
Linksys Aware is a WiFi motion sensing subscription service that uses your existing Intelligent Mesh WiFi network to sense motion without the use of cameras or additional hardware, ensuring privacy and convenience throughout your home. It detects activity via WiFi signals and sends you notifications through the Linksys App when motion has occurred. Linksys Aware is available as a software subscription on all Linksys Velop Tri-Band WiFi Systems for $2.99 /month or $24.99 /year and comes with a free 90-day trial.
User Testing
I was responsible for designing a few key sub-features, including all settings, push notifications, the onboarding flow, and the notification scheduling feature. I was also heavily involved with designing the motion graphs and marketing screens. Everyone on the team helped brainstorm and whiteboard ideas as we ideated on how to make our product better.
It was critical that we launched with a product that had a strong foundation in research and was heavily tested tested with users. By the time it was all said and done, we brought in over 40 participants to test the usability of the product we were designing. We were able to quickly iterate on a design and tweak things on the fly if a design didn't test as well as we had hoped. Often times, we would take the feedback we got and update our prototype within a couple of days so that we could test the following week with an improved design concept.
Screenshots of various prototypes I made during testing
Iterations on sensitivity setting
The first versions of the sensitivity slider had a horizontal slider to increase or decrease the level of sensitivity. Based on the slider position, the content above would update to give you information on that setting. Testing made it clear that this wasn't very intuitive to users. We came up with the idea of flipping the slider vertically and listing the information about the settings to the side--sort of like a volume dial on a stereo. This concept tested much better.
Iterations on the live motion view
Arguably the most important screen that we were designing was the live motion view. This is the first thing that a user sees when they use Linksys Aware, so it was important that we displayed live motion data in a way that people could understand. One thing that challenged us was figuring out how to distinguish normal motion activity from more intense motion that met or exceed a user's motion sensitivity setting. As we learned how the technology worked, we continuously met with our developers and firmware engineers to create a graph that accurately conveyed what was happening behind the scenes and was easy to use. After several rounds of testing and iterating, we landed on a solution and we were happy with the end result.
Documentation
Because of the complexity of having so many different components, states, and features it made sense to create flow diagrams so that the development team could easily reference the screens, read notes from the UX team, and ask questions as they were working.
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We used Overflow to document each sub-flow, and created a "UX Index" in our internal wiki tool to list each user story and links to final screens that were kept in Zeplin. Overall this process worked really well for us.
The Result
Working on Linksys Aware was a great experience because it offered me the challenge of designing something using exciting new technology. It was impressive to be able to go from design to development to a live app in just a few months. There was a lot of teamwork that went into it, and we succeeded in laying the groundwork for new and improved features in the future, including in the wellness space. There's much more to come!
