background
With growing demand for smart home efficiencies, the Device Dashboard (aka Project Vanilla) was a strategic step towards Amazon/Alexa home control for Fire Tablet users. The feature provides quick access to connected device controls with minimal navigation friction.
project goal
Design, present, and QA the front-end customer experience (CX) and scalable infrastructure for an easily accessible smart home control panel.
my role: Design Manager
team: Two UX Designers, Visual Designer, UXPM, PM
timeline: Roughly one year from initial ideation to launch.
Large features like this required a complex working-backwards schedule. To illustrate the important overlapping deadlines and deliverables when meeting with partner teams, I created a milestone graphic.
headwinds
1) The requirement for quick access necessitated a lengthy exploration and alignment process, resulting in the final ingress placement within the system NavBar.
2) Existing smart home controls on other Amazon devices were sub-par, requiring significant effort to convince leadership to deviate from established patterns.
3) Bandwidth issues arose, with the original lead designer leaving halfway through, shifting ownership to a junior designer who required more guidance but ultimately excelled.
tactics
Conducted a RITE user test with nearly a dozen smart home users to evaluate educational/awareness UI and various ingress/navigation models. Through rapid iteration between sessions, we landed on the model that eventually shipped, with primary ingress from the bottom nav-bar.
Final designs for the ingress to Device Dashboard (lower-left corner of screen).
beta testing: Two rounds of beta testing were conducted with over 1200 internal employees from the four countries representing our top Tablet marketplaces. I personally authored the majority of the beta survey questions, resulting in more actionable evaluative feedback. Results:
1) The overall CSAT for Vanilla is 6.13 (751), exceeding the threshold score of 5.5/7, with scores of 6.16 (US), 6.33 (UK), 6.13 (DE), and 5.51 (JP) from each PFM.
2) 44% (326) and 39% (285) of participants agreed and strongly agreed with the overall design of the Device Dashboard.
3) 91% of participants found it easy to use the Device Dashboard to control their smart devices.
4) 91% of participants found the Device Dashboard useful, and 89% found it easy to locate their smart devices.
5) 88% of participants were able to quickly control their smart devices from the Device Dashboard.
results
While I don’t have access to post-launch usage data, user feedback and press coverage were overwhelmingly positive. Prior to this feature's launch, Fire Tablet users had to rely on multiple 3P apps, assuming they were even available in Amazon’s Appstore, to control their home devices. The Device Dashboard made Fire tablets the easiest way to view and control smart devices without opening an app. With a CSAT of 6.13 at launch, the Device Dashboard included GUI support for all major device types (lights, switches, plugs, thermostats, and cameras) and had plans to include more.
Leadership feedback on our designs was glowing, and the feature heavily influenced smart home controls within the Alexa app and on Fire TV. Press described the feature as ideal for “when touch is better than voice,” and noted that it allows mounting a cheap “Amazon Fire Tablet on a wall to use as a smart home controller” (The Verge), and as one of the key reasons to buy the Fire Tablet (TechRadar).
learnings
1) right a lot: Amazonians are not always right. Sometimes a strong bias for action results in sub-par CX (e.g., smart home controls on Fire TV) that’s ripe for change. While discussions with other teams before substantial work begins are beneficial, sometimes deviation is healthy for Amazon and may eventually create a new pattern that others adopt.
2) RITE user test: This was the first time my team participated in a RITE user test, where designs were validated and adjusted on the fly. It allowed us to work quickly and proved to be very valuable, helping to convince PM that our design recommendation was preferred over the alternate options.
3) leadership bias: Dave Limp (SVP) and Fire Tablet leadership own and use dozens of smart devices at their homes, often biasing their opinions and firmly placing them into the “power-user” demographic. This required additional explaining and examples in reviews, where we argued for the importance of both the non-power-user CX and the power-user CX.