Smart Lock Maintenance
Improving security and maintenance response times in affordable homes
The challenge: Evaluate the business viability of multiple IoT use cases for affordable home developments; then create a minimum viable product (MVP) for demonstration and testing.
Client Goal: Our client, a multinational financial services company, had committed to building 3,500 affordable homes in 2020. They asked if we could help them leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) to make these homes more comfortable and efficient for their future customers while reducing management overhead.
We were in the exciting position of hosting our client just after they had narrowed down to a few use cases they were interested in pursuing. We had 3 hours to convince them to work with us on their MVP development.
Team
Preston Boyden - designer - workshop prep & facilitation, UX, UI
Alexander Bauer - industry expert, Insurance - project management
Karina Serres - IoT consultant, developer - mobile app development
Ready, set, go
We’ve all been there - you have an important prospective client coming in next week, they have money to spend, and everyone on the client rep team has a different idea of how to make it happen - and you’re the designer that’s going to magically wow the client with pretty pictures and fancy words.
Well, of course you will.
Design for the outcome
With conflicting information and expectations coming from the rep team, my first job was to get to the point - what would secure us a concrete plan and next steps to work together with our client?
Given their fresh set of potential use cases (and our limit of 3 hours) I decided working through a business model canvas together could be a great way to A) demonstrate our business & design capabilities, B) familiarize ourselves with a use case for development, and C) get them excited about the idea with clear next steps laid out.
Our session was full of lively discussion around what the business case would look like, centering around affordable home property maintenance. The client participants came from various business units and backgrounds, and the business model canvas was a great way to get them all talking about the same problems - each bringing a unique perspective from their line of business to the table.
What the canvas left to be desired, however, were clear next steps toward development and implementation. With about 30 minutes left in our session, I took them through an Assumptions & Dependencies exercise to pinpoint what questions still needed answering before work could begin.
This activity brought the team together around the most important issues they still needed to address, and opened the door for us to help them do so.
Key value propositions from the session:
Reduce energy consumption (and costs)
Avoid serious damage (i.e. leaks)
Avoid outages (i.e. boiler)
Sensors-as-a-service (hands-off usage)
Self-service
Remote communication & apartment access for servicing
Onboarding - “drip-feed” info leading up to move-in so tenant isn’t overwhelmed
Shared resources (lawnmower, tools)
Parking - shared & optimized
Avoid waste overfill / smell
>> Focus
We landed on smart locks as a first use case for several reasons:
1) it was one of the simplest ways to reduce management overhead costs
2) locks are needed in all units (low installation cost)
3) smart locks and the associated maintenance service possibilities carry tangible value for the customer
Building a smart lock app
Mission:
Enable maintenance technicians to access homes during repair appointments, even when the tenant is away
Problem
With normal homes and locks, when home appliances and equipment malfunction, an appointment for maintenance must be scheduled. If the tenant isn’t there when the maintenance technician arrives, there is no way for the service to be delivered - leading to longer outages and wasted time and money.
Solution
Smart locks, enabled through a mobile application, give the tenant the flexibility to allow technicians to access to their home while they are out.
Impact
With fewer missed appointments and wasted time, time to repair can be minimized, helping both the tenant and the maintenance provider.
Defining user roles & requirements
The team provided us with their research findings and I created a list of user requirements necessary to implement the use case.
Maintenance Technician
View upcoming service appointments & detail for each
Navigate to each service appointment location
Gain access to the home for service, even when tenant is away
Record job status / notes
Access malfunctioned equipment specifications and manuals
Lock home upon completion of job
Homeowner / Tenant
Submit claim for malfunctioned equipment
Grant remote access to technician
Update status of claim
Contact maintenance & property management
Property Management
Manage & respond to claims
Schedule repair appointments
Contact technicians & tenants
User Flow - Technician
For the purposes of the MVP we focused solely on the maintenance technician’s side for the first iteration, as it carried the bulk of the hardware integration.
Wireframing
Learning & Improving
1. Make repair details more prominent from landing screen
The most important piece of information for the technician is the problem they are being sent to solve, including what equipment they need to bring - followed by where they need to go. In the high fidelity stage these elements were brought forward to the landing page and to a more prominent position in the detail view.
2. Separate Lock & Unlock functions
The lock and unlock functions didn’t carry enough significance in the original wireframes; security was at risk. I gave them their own screen with large status iconography and important relevant location information for maximal clarity and security.
MVP
The Smart Maintenance app centralizes the technician’s appointments, notifications, and detailed instructions. He can view his upcoming schedule, summarized by type of repair, along with the location and directions to each appointment. Once there, by using location services and standardized smart locks, he can unlock the door for service (functionality indicated by green lock icon). The appointment detail even marks the location of service within the home, provided by the tenant.
The lock/unlock screens are intentionally simple and bare, containing only pertinent information for security: the exact location of the appointment, lock/unlock functionality, and a troubleshooting link. Each time the door is locked by the technician, there is a prompt to end the job - permanently locking the door and closing the case, and preventing any further access to the home without the tenant’s consent.
Alternate Views
Other user roles: Homeowner / Tenant
While out of the scope for the MVP, I wireframed several views for the tenant to show how it could interact with the technician’s app.
Wrap up
Despite conflicting expectations and a lack of direction from leadership early on, through use of design principles and adaptable facilitation I was able to steer the team toward collaboration -> signings for the rep team and an MVP project for us.
We successfully created a native iOS prototype which both demonstrated the feasibility of the use case for our client’s new affordable home communities and provided guidance for further development.