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EZVIZ Video Doorbell
Project Overview
We built a video surveillance feature within a smart home TV app to help improve home security for independent senior living.
This is a part of a concept project we did for EZVIZ, an IoT company looking for more opportunities with senior customers.
Time
6 Weeks
Role
UX Research, UI Design, Animation
Final Deliverable
User Research Report, Animated Prototype,
UI concepts
Background
More than 160 million of China's population is aged 65 or more. 49% of them live alone in their home as they grow older.
Security is always a big issue for seniors living alone, and they are more likely to experience loneliness and fear stemming from living by themselves.
Technology can assist seniors in keeping safe and healthy. But most of the products aren't age-friendly, and not tailored to senior user's needs.
Problem
How can we build something that secures independent senior living and that older adults would love to use?
Solution
How would users interact with our design?
TV Remote
The primary input method for our app is TV remote. By controlling the directional pad, users can get connected to the app from across the room.
Voice Interaction
With a microphone built in the TV remote, users can interact with EZVIZ smart home TV app by speech recognition.
How does it work?
Know who that is before opening the door
Users can keep an eye on the entrance of their house while sitting in their sofa. When not sure who that is, talk to the visitor directly on TV, and the conversation will be even easier with the help of captions.
Easier way to get support when something ain't right
The contact and share feature allows senior users to call their trusted contacts for help, share real time information with them and even let them talk to the visitor!
Alert your families when emergency arise
When seniors haven't interacted with the door for 48 hours, families will receive an alert on their phone, remind them to check on their older adults.
The time interval for safety alert can be customized according to different needs.
Research
So, how did we arrive at all of these?
To better understand the seniors’ problems with home security and how they view technology. We did some desktop researches and interviewed 12 older adults and their families
Security is not only technology issues. It won't be useful unless the human factor is taken into consideration.
Ideation
Wireframing
After clarifying the user needs, we started to sketched out the possible solutions and user flows seperately, and then discussed it together to pick and incorporate the feasible ideas.
User Flow
First Iteration
Users can understand most of the flows. But the voice control interactions are too complicated that users need more guidances to complete the interaction.
Second Iteration
Inspired by video games, we added an animated instruction box on the top left corner to help users figure out how to use it and flatten the learning curve.
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The top left corner is the most discoverable spot .
Won't affect the interactions, or block any important content.
Replace the door opening function with chatting function.
Final Iteration
UI Style Guide
We used Apple TV design guideline as a reference for our UI design. In order to maintain branding consistency, we use the color palette based on EZVIZ mobile app. Yet we avoided heavy use of white and saturated color, considering that it may get harsh on users' eyes.
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Grid System
Attribute
Value
Column
3
Gutter
48 pixel
Margin
80 pixel
Include the senior users in the design process
To get some insights on users cognitive process and their physical limitation while interacting with our product, we use the mid-fi prototypes for user interview after the first iteration.
Insights
Design Goals
Vision and hearing problems make it difficult for seniors to know who is knocking the door without opening it.
Large font size + Display video from doorbell on TV + Auto voice transcibtion
Using mobile apps could be challenging, and getting helps from others remotely is also very frustrating.
Allow family members to get access to the app and solve the problem from their end.
Senior citizens who live alone, long for social connections, and need to talk to someone, even if it’s a stranger.
Internal trigger to cue users to action.
Voice/video call feature to encourage connections within the families.
It's hard to strike a balance between maintaining privacy and informing your families when a danger arises .
Activity tracking for family members to check on their loved ones instead of placing camera in their living room
Benchmarking Research
We conducted some research on several IOT TV apps and video doorbell products to gain some insights of industry standard and technologies that could provide feasible solutions.
Outcome
Validation
We projected the prototype on TV screen and used Zoom meeting to do user testing with 6 senior citizens remotely. It turns out that all of them could quickly understand the flows and successfully complete all the tasks.
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Client Feedbacks
We presented the project to our clients --- the project manager and UX designers of EZVIZ TV app. They like our design in general, yet they also point out some problems in our UI design due to technical feasibility. They think the video chatting and audio transcribing feature is doable, and will include that in their design.
Final Thoughts
Let older adults stay in a safe and secure place is not enough. We will continue to work on integrating other smart devices, and finalizing the design of other features that enable them to live independently, do their favorite things, and still get connected to the community.
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Some parts of our design still need re-jiggling, and to be better crafted with more considerations about technical feasibility.