As smart home living continues to evolve, an international home electronics brand sought to further elevate the digital integration of their home appliances. Across 2022-2023, Daylight served as their design partner on multiple occasions. We helped improve their mobile app engagement and user experience. Beyond that, we also innovated physical and digital feature concepts for their new line of upgradable appliances. Working as a consultant, one of the joys was having returning business, as it spoke to the success of previous projects. As a cornerstone member, I served as the lead designer while occasionally taking on the project manager role when needed.
Lead UX Designer, Project Manager
Confidential Client
May, 2022 - July, 2023
In one of the early projects, the team was tasked with identifying the UX gaps within our client's mobile app and surfacing unique feature values to improve app retention. The app is a smart home application that allows users to connect to and interact with their home appliances. From analyzing the app's analytics and interviewing appliance owners, we learned that while people initially downloaded the app, they found it neither useful nor easy to use. Many didn't see the value and preferred to simply interact with the physical appliances alone. To address the problem, our team proposed a few redesigns and feature concepts to enhance communication between the app and its users.
“I have no understanding at all of what’s on my phone and what’s over there [on the digital washer display]” — Anonymous appliance owner
I originally joined as an individual contributor but eventually assumed an additional role as a project manager due to shifting resources. While being a full participant in ideation and design execution, I also managed the project timeline, conducted user interviews, and led client communication.
By collaborating with the client and mapping out the full experience, we gained an understanding of the architecture and the features available within the app. This helped us come up with ideas that can seamlessly integrate into the existing ecosystem.
Original flow map on the app navigation.
By speaking to real appliance owners and understanding our client’s app, we delivered a set of feature concepts tailored to individual home appliances. In the case of a washer, we learned that the app provides many downloadable cycles (e.g., Overnight Wash) that could benefit users’ laundry needs, but the app’s user experience made accessing these potentially useful features daunting and often too cumbersome to explore.
Feedback from our initial testing session with home appliance owners.
To improve affordance, we revamped the device page to present a simulated dial experience that mirrors the physical device's dial control. We also simplified the cycle list by prioritizing popular cycles and recommending cycles based on user routines.
Revamped device page to surface favourite and popular cycles to download. The More button for progressive reveal and prevent information overload.
On top of progressive reveal, we use notification to show the most relevant cycles based on user's routine.
Another major insight we learned was that users had trouble understanding the benefits available only through the mobile app. For instance, an owner with multiple products from the client mentioned, "I have the oven, but I don’t use the app because who needs an app for an oven?" Part of the issue was the lack of an onboarding experience. Therefore, we proposed introducing a series of device-specific onboarding screens when a new device is connected to the app.
Once the device gets connected to the owner's phone, the app will initate an onboarding experience showcasing all the exclusive benefit of using the app.
To ensure feasibility, we incorporated these new designs into a flow map to showcase how users would access and navigate them. On top of that, we conducted additional ad-hoc user testing sessions to further refine our designs.
Flow map to showcase how the proposed design fit into the existing architecture.
Besides the examples above, we developed many other concepts for various appliances. The project led to an improved app experience and increased user retention rate. For Daylight, the successful delivery of the project was a great reference leading to several follow-up business opportunities with the client.
After the initial project success, our client approached us to evaluate their in-app feature update experience in preparation for a new line of upgradable appliances, specifically within the NA market. The goal was to ensure customers understood how to install firmware, download upgrades, and access new features for their appliances. While the project was on shorter timeline, its significance was immense, as it gave us valuable insights into our client's app and home appliances and connected us to another major project in the future.
For this project, our team opted to employ third-party platforms such as UserTesting. We devised a research plan to recruit relevant participants and asked them to perform several tasks using the prototypes we created.
To evaluate user's experience, we used UI from the client and built a set of prototypes ourselves for the test.
We analyze the use feedback by looking at recurring comments.
Upon conducting the test and analyzing recurring patterns, we learned that while the idea of upgrading an existing product has become well established (e.g., Tesla), upgrading your home appliance remains a foreign concept. Therefore, we made several UX updates, most notably on copywriting and UI to improve clarity and how the whole experience takes place. With this project, along with other positive outcomes with the client, we were able to expand our partnership and collaborate on projects that are larger and more complex.
Based on the testing result, we proposed a set of UX updates to help improve the app's integration for the upcoming series of upgradable appliances.
Partnering again with Daylight, the client looked to add more features feasible for their upgrdable appliances. In order to come up with applicable ideas, our team employed a hybrid research methods, including card sorting, zoom interviews, and in-home visits. In addition, we also visited our client's experiemental lab to understand the technical limitations and their existing exploration.
After the research trip, we conducted multiple synthesis and ideation sessions with the client's working team. We developed more than 20 concepts grounded in research. For each concept, we provided relevant user insights, accompanied by animated prototypes (where applicable) and UX details. Our goal was to ensure the concepts were not only integratable with the existing physical and digital experiences but also genuinely desirable and helpful to appliance owners.
Based on the insights, we sketched out different concepts before narrowing down and further refining them with the clients.
A sample of deliverable with UX details and interactive prototype.