Overview
Delos needed an easy way for integration partners to install their new Delos Wellness Extension to new and existing Crestron Home systems. The challenge included both meeting the needs of time-crunched, in-the-field installers and navigating unknown hardware requirements of third-party air quality sensors and thermostats.
In 5 months the team went from a napkin sketch to a beta-tested app in the App Store.
My contribution
Requirements definition
UX design
Information architecture
UX writing
Usability testing
UI iteration
Beta program facilitation
The team
2 x full-stack developers
design technologist
visual designer
subject matter expert
Tools
Sketch Figma Jira Google Sheets Google Forms
Process
Setting the stage for iteration and success
One of Delos’s first forays into creating a de-novo product in-house, and the first that integrates multiple connected devices, this was an opportunity to showcase how an agile approach and collaboration between Product, Technology, and Design reduce the time to learnings and to value.
I successfully advocated for a significant shift from the existing waterfall approach (used with Delos's off-shore vendor who maintained a legacy product) to a more agile approach. I also successfully advocated for (and filled) a key position: the role of a design technologist, who could establish Delos's first coded design system in collaboration with myself and the visual designer, not only facilitating consistent experiences and easier development, but also enabling systemic iterations via tokenization of key styles, attributes and more.
User interviews inform design
I conducted conversational interviews with a number of Delos's integration partners to learn about their current tools and workflows. A key finding was that these professionals each had their own way of doing things. To meet their needs the Setup app needed to be simple to use AND offer flexibility around the order of steps. Unlike some early ideations, the final app featured multiple ways for users to navigate to the step of their choice.
Multiple benefits of an early working prototype
The tech team was able to use the early prototype to learn about the specs and performance of the third party devices. This allowed us to experiment with ways to speed-up some steps via technical solutions, and where needed, provide design solutions to make things feel faster and set expectations around the maximum time a step could take.
The prototype also provided more insights into the types of errors a user could encounter especially technical errors like a connection or network error. Myself and the visual designer iterated on design and content of error messaging, and were able to quickly run usability tests to ensure easy error recovery.
Outcome
A new way of working
Compared to the previous waterfall approach, this new collaborative and iterative way of working enabled earlier and more frequent demos and testing.
This made it easier for stakeholders to react to work and provide feedback and support (see Chief Commercial Officer Anthony Antolino's reaction to an early demo here) and facilitated realistic testing early in the process, which was often the easiest way to solve internal disputes around design choices.
Beta program informs roadmap
Like many teams launching a new app, we took a minimalist approach, including only core functions in the first release. And of course, all team members had hypothesis about what they would prioritize next. Beta program feedback was key in identifying areas of high priority, which centered around content for installers about the benefits of indoor air quality remediation - both for their own education and content to share with homeowners.
A blueprint for future installation needs
Delos pivoted their focus from residential to commercial wellness not long after the completion of the Setup app. Their new focus, the WellCube, is to be installed by professional installers using a native mobile app.