Client: Circle product team at Logitech
Team: Logi Design + Circle
Role: Lead- User Experience Design, Strategy
Work: On device, app on mobile, tablet, web and TV
Duration: 12 months
Status: In market since July 2017
Awards: Good Design 2017, iF design 2018
LOGI SMART HOME SECURITY BUSINESS..
had developed a modern, indoor home monitoring camera, Circle, designed to both Protect (20%) and Connect (80%) your home. To address the purchase driver of consumers today, Circles’ messaging focused more on the Connect message, but the belief remained that monitoring cameras can offer a more joyful and delightful purpose in your day to day. In this world of connected devices, Circle operates in isolation and is more popular among early adopters.
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SO THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE WAS...
how do we make the home security business more holistic and expand the core growth opportunity?
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WHAT WE LEARNT IS THAT...
beyond the excitement of what the smart home will bring in the future, what consumers really want today is simplicity, ease-of-use and devices that solve real, everyday problems (often ‘boring’ problems). When it comes to security, consumers desire instant peace of mind, constant connectivity, privacy, proactivity that is non intrusive and an experience that is a reflection of their homes.
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WE SAW AN OPPORTUNITY...
How can our homes keep us safe, look out and help us with what we need?
MEET CIRCLE 2...
Secure home. Sweet home. Circle it. Whole home security made simple.
OPPORTUNITY
EXPERIENCE
Whole home security.
A whole lot easier.
Meet Circle 2, the only indoor and outdoor, weatherproof, wired or 100% wire-free 1080p HD home security camera with night vision and up to 180° field-of-view that you can set up in minutes.
Feel right at home.
Even when you are away.
Circle 2’s easy to use mobile and web apps let you stream and download unlimited amounts of 1080p HD video from anywhere effortlessly.
The Circle app is available on desktop, mobile and Android TV so you can watch over home from anywhere.
Home surveillance camera that fits in anywhere.
Walls. Windows. Wired or Wire-Free. Circle 2 home security camera's array of mounts and accessories allow it to work just about anywhere, inside or outside your home.
PLUG MOUNT
Your footage is digitally secured with bank level encryption
The footage is digitally secured by unique identification process and is coded to talk to your secure cloud. All of it is transferred using industry standard protocols and you can choose to get additional access through Circle Safe subscriptions
OUT OF THE BOX EXPERIENCE
It has a very short and simple out of the box experience. The set up can be completed in about 2 minutes.
KEY EXPERIENCE FEATURES
PRODUCT SKEWS AND ACCESSORIES
Products are sold individually or a combo with accessories.
EXPERIENCE ECOSYSTEM
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CAMERA INTERACTION MODEL
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Below is a video of LED of the camera indicating different status
APP INTERACTION MODEL
Circle 2 app is available on different devices- mobile, tablet, TV, and web. The main goal of the app is for customer to see whats going on at home whenever, wherever, be notified of anything different, manage what they see, who accesses content and other settings. Below is the interaction model for mobile app. Its the same for other touch points.
APP KEY SPACES
APP ARCHITECTURE AND HERO USER FLOWS
Existing Circle app supported the basic functionality of live stream of camera and timeline of events triggered by motion. But there was no way for customer to control or understand what type of motion, set any other parameters for alerts or viewing footage and a lot of privacy concerns. We designed an extensible system that will help user know if something goes wrong or is different, whats happening at home, footage or events that they want to see, control what and when camera records and thereby feel safe, secured and happy.
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To meet requirements of Circle 2, we rearchitected the current Circle app and added new features progressively over
3 quarter releases along with visual design overhaul. The app is common to both Circle and Circle 2 users.
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DESIGN ARTEFACT EXAMPLES
DESIGN PROCESS
PROJECT KICKOFF- BRIEF & INITIAL GOALS
Logi smart home team came to us with a very specific task of designing the eyes of the home---- outdoor
wireless connected camera to build on Protect and Connect category within 10 months. The goal of the business was to catch up with its competitors in this space and grow-- a short term aspiration.
What would happen to Logi circle indoor camera? What are the other opportunities and important use cases in
security space? What does eyes of the home really mean for customers and Logi and how can it evolve in
future? Its desirability, viability and feasibility?
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Logi has been in a transition phase to a design led organization. We proposed to use Logi design playbook by
design team that had been recently accepted as the universal process within the company.
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Research the space
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Identify multiple opportunities
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Pick an opportunity
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Explore multiple concepts
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Prototype hero moments
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Test assumptions
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Roadmap launches if applicable
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Detail out a concept
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Prototype test and iterate
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Build final product
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Test and be iterative
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Launch
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Study feedback and improve
The team had a good know-how of the problem space but the proposal was specific without enough research or any validation
FRAMING AND VISION
We proposed to combine the Framing and Vision phase together, due to time and funds restriction and came up with a plan for a design sprint to start with-- which meant consolidating existing research, ideate, test and research more.
1.Understand problem space
through certified survey reports and competitive analysis
2. Research initial customer needs
using quantitative feedback and market reports
2 days review and consolidation workshop
3. Audit Logi Circle
and consolidate stakeholder and customer feedback
2 days walk through, stakeholder interviews and overall customer feedback consolidation session
4. Define opportunities and test
with customers, research general attitudes associated with home security
2 days ideation workshop
2 days consolidation & prototyping
3 days in home research and test
DESIGN SPRINT
1.Understand problem space
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Smart home category
Smartphones, connected devices and ubiquitous connectivity are changing existing behaviors and creating new
opportunities for the home.
Happiness
(Simple and joyful)
Empowerment
(Control and connect)
Peace of Mind
(Security and protection)
Problem space : Security and Protection
The surveillance aspect of smart home hits an emotional chord with consumers. With security being the top purchase driver for smart home it makes sense that home monitoring cameras, connected doorbell and door
locks are among the most popular devices in this category.
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---icontrol networks state of the smart home report 2015
Competitive landscape
We audited different key smart home security experiences in the market. To understand the scope of the landscape better, we did a competitive analysis across relevant criteria.
We found--
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There isn’t an elegant solution that plays both context (indoor and outdoor) despite of high customer desirability. Nest and Arlo are the closest to do so​.
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There are very few who are trying to make the serious concern of security a joyful connected experience
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Though automation has a lot of potential, the industry has stayed away
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Most experiences are siloe'd with few moving towards better integration with rest of the home
2. Research initial customer needs
We conducted a quantitative analysis as an initial ground to prepare for qualitative research that will come later.
The participants for the quantitive research had
Smart home security system
A desire to own one
Other smart home systems
​ Needs
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Simplicity and ease-of-use trump innovative things a security experience offers for 90%
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Sentiment of protect is stronger than connect for 80%
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45% of people want outdoor security only
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55% of the people desire both indoor and outdoor if the system is more secured
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Plug and play is great but people don't mind hardwire installation if its easy
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For 50% an intelligent security is welcome if its reliable
Concerns
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Privacy of data
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No multi member system
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Not integrated with rest of the home
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Doesn't blend with home
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Reliability of intelligent systems
What we learnt---
3. Audit Logi Circle
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Logi Circle​ is a modern indoor camera that connects you to your home and loved ones. The focus has been on
Connect (20%) and Protect (80%). It captures and showcases all the relevant content to our users via a simple & intuitive Mobile and web interface.
What we learnt from walkthroughs, customer feedback and stakeholder interviews about Circle---
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Fun friendly physical design but its very bulky that limits some utility
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Its portable but mounting options are limited that restricts placement and use
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2 hours off dock battery life is less, so has to be constantly kept on charging for prolonged use
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Easy to use but lacks customization of the whole experience
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Has motion generated notifications but doesn't distinguish threats from non threats
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Lacks constantly recording capabilities and comprehensive back up options
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Video quality is limited to 720p. Other products are offer better clarity at 1080p for similar price.
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Feels siloe'd because it doesn't work with other Logi or non Logi smart home products
4. Define opportunities and test
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After studying the problem space, initial customer needs, concerns and the feedback on current experience that
Logi Circle offers, we did an ideation workshop to create concepts based on our hypothesis
Through the ideation workshop, we concluded to 3 potential opportunities to test our assumptions about nature and offerings of eyes of the home.
We mapped each concept with a personality, attributes, features, primary use cases, storyboards, design, material and function. This was for stakeholder purpose and also to create a basis for in home user reasearch and testing effort.
In- home research requirements
As we had combined Framing and Vision phase together, the goal of in home research was 2 fold-- research
about attitudes associated with smart home security and test our assumptions about them. What we were hoping
to learn ---
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General attitudes and emotional connections to the home - what are they and how are they expressed
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Deeper understanding of attitudes about privacy, security, peace of mind, safety, control, happiness, connection, being at home and away from home, simplicity, convenience, and an intelligent home - what are their attitudes now and how have they evolved from 2 years ago
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Current smart home/security ecosystem - motivations, purchase journey, future plans
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Set-up processes and current usages
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CMF / design cues (primarily observation)
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Satisfaction, tensions, pain points, hacks, wishes
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Expectations of the future smart home
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Initial response to the high level concepts
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In- home research & Key Insights
We interviewed 10 families across California, Colarado and Boston based on market segmentation by the
business group. UX design and research teams worked together to prepare for the sessions. Each in-home
research session lasted for 1 hour 15 mins.
Learning about customer's smart home security ideas , preferences and listening them talk about their daily routine
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1."If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong-- Murphy’s law. I want to know if everything at home is OK but I don’t want to be inundated with excessive notifications. I wish there was a way, I can teach the system, what I want to know and it tells me that only."
2.“I think outdoor security is crucial and beneficial. When it comes to indoors, it would be helpful but I feel weird being recorded all the time and someone else watching me. So is there a way for the home and family be secured, but privacy still be intact as and when needed”
3. "Like a curious George, I like to check in every now and then what’s happening at home. With my current security system, its pretty cumbersome because the system shows everything. It would be great if it knew who or what is important to me and helped me navigate through accordingly."
4.There is something special if the home knows me and tends to me. The idea of a sentient system appeals to me a point it is non intrusive and non creepy. But for that the home security needs to be at the core and expand to the values of ambience and connections.
5."If its going to be smart home camera, I would like it to record how the environment changes around my home or how my kids have grown up over the years. Its not about only security per say but something more holistic."
One of the most insightful learnings for our project team was that the ideas of Protector, Assistant and Spirit were not necessarily 3 different concepts, but possibly a roadmap of evolution of nature of the security experience Logi can build and offer.
REFINE AND DELIVERY
At this stage in the project, we worked collaboratively with business and engineering teams to refine ideas, roadmap product launches, schedule releases along with weekly check ins on progress, informal work sessions, quickly testing machine learning capabilities, hardware prototypes and app designs as needed.
Core Experience decisions
From what we learnt, we defined the constraints and progressive graph for the evolution of experience
User stories
We started with sketching out user stories to understand and align on the primary and secondary use cases, that Circle 2 will cater to. This helped us design the product, mounts, accessories and the app experience.
Product decisions
Based on the primary use cases, we decided on certain parameters of the product, prototyped and tested its validity- especially in case of life of battery packs, spots for mounting camera. We learnt that there is big desirability for both wired and wireless. With mounts we learnt, what could be the primary ones and road mapped the launch of other accessories.
App decisions
Based on the learning from the in home research, user stories, experience strategy, we mapped out the goal of the app, worked with machine learning to study the image recognition capabilities, prototyped and tested possibilities, mapped out a feature set for the next 3 quarter releases.
Post launch
We mapped out plans for quantitative and qualitative feedback for in home studies as a 3 months post launch exercise. So the work continues...