AT&T DIGITAL LIFE CASE STUDY
AT&T Digital Life is a customized home security and automation application designed to allow residential customers to remotely monitor and control home security, heating, and electricity. AT&T owned-and-operated monitoring centers provide professional
24-hour home security that respond to emergencies by contacting the police, fire, or emergency medical authorities.
24-hour home security that respond to emergencies by contacting the police, fire, or emergency medical authorities.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
AT&T saw a unique need in the marketplace for a simple end-to-end service and experience for its users, allowing customized monitoring and security solutions for residential customers. Digital Life was beta tested in two markets for an 8-month period.
Our challenge would be to distill the user feedback gathered through interviews and surveys to define and resolve the pain points in the initial release of the software and the user interface and design solutions that would give the user(s) the ability to customize and control multiple layers of monitoring and home automation in a single intuitive digital interface.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
AT&T saw a unique need in the marketplace for a simple end-to-end service and experience for its users, allowing customized monitoring and security solutions for residential customers. Digital Life was beta tested in two markets for an 8-month period.
Our challenge would be to distill the user feedback gathered through interviews and surveys to define and resolve the pain points in the initial release of the software and the user interface and design solutions that would give the user(s) the ability to customize and control multiple layers of monitoring and home automation in a single intuitive digital interface.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- Develop an application integrating security and energy management.
- Design an elegant, yet intuitive, touchscreen user interface.
- Develop a library of fast-loading platform-independent UI components,
- Research and test product performance optimization for low-cost Android touchscreen devices.
- Planning, analysis, verification and review activities through the entire development process.
- Design and execute testing for functional, GUI, and hardware compatibility.
USER PAIN POINTS
Interviews conducted with users during the application's initial release revealed that the largest complaints addressed the complexity of the interface. In an effort to give the user the utmost control over the automation of the home, multiple editable tiles were created to control everything from motion detection to temperature control. But there was no way to view the home and all of the monitoring devices in one simplified view. The first product launch had failed to create a holistic experience that viewed the home from the user’s perspective. To correct this, we revisited the data and revised our approach.
Our solution was Spaces, an intuitive setup phase built on an emerging AngularJS framework that enabled canvas-based UI controls. Spaces enabled the user to personalize and individualize their space through the creation of a blueprint system, allowing them to virtually see the components installed throughout their home in one intuitive view. From this blueprint view, the user is now able to
THE OUTCOME
The second release of the AT&T Digital Life application had much greater success than the beta version. An average of 72% of residential customers interviewed reported feeling a greater level of comfort navigating the app and understanding the monitoring features previously unused/under-utilized in the beta release. 57% of new users reported the time spent on the setup of custom programs was under 10 minutes, a 32 minute improvement over the initial release. In the first 3 months of the launch, sales increased by 28% on home monitoring service contracts and an amazing 88% on hardware and device add-ons. Some of this growth was due, in part, to the product being available in new markets, but it can't be ignored that the simplified interface and intuitive design of the Spaces phase gave users a new confidence to branch out from the default program settings and into custom programs and features.
Interviews conducted with users during the application's initial release revealed that the largest complaints addressed the complexity of the interface. In an effort to give the user the utmost control over the automation of the home, multiple editable tiles were created to control everything from motion detection to temperature control. But there was no way to view the home and all of the monitoring devices in one simplified view. The first product launch had failed to create a holistic experience that viewed the home from the user’s perspective. To correct this, we revisited the data and revised our approach.
Our solution was Spaces, an intuitive setup phase built on an emerging AngularJS framework that enabled canvas-based UI controls. Spaces enabled the user to personalize and individualize their space through the creation of a blueprint system, allowing them to virtually see the components installed throughout their home in one intuitive view. From this blueprint view, the user is now able to
- View past and future scheduled events on a timeline,
- Add, delete, and edit tiles related to specific devices
- Programs and get a real-time glance at the operating status of monitoring devices installed in the home.
THE OUTCOME
The second release of the AT&T Digital Life application had much greater success than the beta version. An average of 72% of residential customers interviewed reported feeling a greater level of comfort navigating the app and understanding the monitoring features previously unused/under-utilized in the beta release. 57% of new users reported the time spent on the setup of custom programs was under 10 minutes, a 32 minute improvement over the initial release. In the first 3 months of the launch, sales increased by 28% on home monitoring service contracts and an amazing 88% on hardware and device add-ons. Some of this growth was due, in part, to the product being available in new markets, but it can't be ignored that the simplified interface and intuitive design of the Spaces phase gave users a new confidence to branch out from the default program settings and into custom programs and features.