How can we improve condo living for condo residents with smart devices?
ThoughtWire was co-innovating with a real-estate developer to improve the resident experience in new condo developments. The first deliverable was a proof of concept design for a white-labeled smart home app that works with pre-installed hardware in new condo developments.
My role:
Discovery and exploratory research (user focus groups & surveys)
UX team of 1
Usability tests
Iterative UI design and prototyping
Discovery phase
Started by interviewing condo residents and stakeholders to understand their current pain points and what success looks like.
We found many opportunities to improve condo living with a smart home app because current apps are either hard to use or lack necessary features.
“Most frustrating condo experience is long elevator wait times and when the garbage chute goes down, people leave trash in the room.”
Resident pain points:
Long elevator wait times
Lack of announcements for building maintenance and fire alarms
Concierge is not always available for package pick up
Have to go to the concierge to get access to amenities
Buzzer doesn’t work properly
Define user workflows
I created an immediate design roadmap with the stakeholders, product manager, and strategy team. The goals were aligned with ThoughtWire stakeholders and the client's vision.
Phase 1 scope:
Dashboard (building announcements, parcel delivery, amenity status)
Amenities (amenity booking and manage bookings)
Guest access (quick access and schedule a visit)
In unit controls (smart thermostat, lighting, and door lock controls)
Profile and settings
I mapped out the information architecture and user flows for the use cases. E.g. As a condo resident, I want to see a centralized place for current events, building announcements at a glance so that I’m up to date on what’s happening in my building and plan my day around it if needed.
Validating low fidelity concepts with condo residents
With a good understanding of Phase 1 expectations and user flows, I dove into designs. I started with low fidelity, tested with users, moved forward with high fidelity, and continued to iterate. I ran user tests 1 month apart during our iteration and gathered insights on ways to improve the experience.
Testing goals:
Identify usability issues
Learn how users interact with the experience
Identify copy issues
Pivoting based on user feedback
In early concept testing, we found that the digital assistant is only useful for specific one-step use cases. E.g. Let my guest in. Is the concierge at their desk?
For use cases like amenity booking, the users would rather go through the booking flow themselves. They find it helpful to see all the options they have rather than interacting with conversational UI.
Based on these findings, we removed the digital assistant from Phase 1. More time was needed to test and iterate on how to properly handle the use cases.
Digital assistant concept for amenity booking.
High fidelity design
ThoughtWire was in the process of building a design system. Most of the existing components were built for desktop only. I created a design library for this project and worked with the team to create reusable components.
I paired with engineers to ensure everything in the design was feasible. And if it wasn’t, what our trade-offs were.
In the final user test, 86% of users would use this app if it was available.
Automated package delivery
Automating package logging would reduce the workload significantly for the concierge/security guards. This was a win because automating the delivery process would reduce concierge work by 4+ hours/day.
Recent parcels on the Dashboard notifies residents when something is ready for pick up. There are instructions for package retrieval and a full package history for audit purposes.
Amenities booking and management
Based on the user testing feedback, I learned that residents are interested in:
Having an overview of amenity popular times throughout the day
Choosing date and time to book amenities on the app
Receiving booking confirmation and reminders about their reservation
I simplified the landing page to show amenity availability and schedule at a glance. Split up the amenity and manage booking section for easy navigation.