CHILD & PET LOCK
Vacuum robots has been a really good friends of kids and pets with its interactive buttons, light, and sound. But sometimes it is not that happy story to primary user of those robots. Child & Pet Lock is a feature for those primary users to have their vacuum robots in their control.
Role : UX Lead
Mainly contributed in user flow, physical UX, and app UX/UI design.
Coordinate user research, feature notification message, and FAQ contents work.
Period: 2021
DESIGN GOAL
Many of our users has been struggling with their kids and pets who are really interested in pressing buttons and see the feedback from it on the robot. To avoid that situation, users has DIYed their robots like putting duck tapes on the button or using a baby gate to block the robots from kids and pets. Child & Pet Lock is a feature to lock the physical button on the robot but still provide all functions and services without limitation on the app.
DESIGN PROCESS
UX FLOW
To determine what app screens we need and how the robot needs to communicate with its user through physical UI, I listed up user goals and what information user needs. Based on the list, UX flow was visualized.
Define User Goal
1) Lock the physical button to avoid unexpected intervention from child and pets.
2) Start/resume the mission with physical button even the button is locked.
3) Unlock the physical button physically just in case Cloud or app doesn't work.
4) Unlock the physical button on the app
Visualize UX Flow
Key Takeaways
PHYSICAL UX
Physical UX is combined with two threads: 1) how to manually unlock when Cloud doesn't work so user can't unlock the feature on the app or when user doesn't want to spend time to find a mobile phone to open the app and just want to run a cleaning mission from the physical button, and 2) how to communicate the robot's locked status with a robot's physical channels like light and sound.
Button Interaction
To discover possible button interaction to deactivate Child & Pet Lock, I listed up all physical input combinations we've been using. Since the physical input to deactivate this feature is the only way users can do when Cloud doesn't work, we already use variety of physical input combinations for other robot behaviors. Therefore, it is important for the new button interaction not to overlap with the existing button interaction and also be easily distinguished from those as well as be easy enough for users to do it.
Explore The majority of respondents who did share a user case for "end now" in place needed to edit the cleaning job in progress.
From the list, I came up with design suggestions for Child & Pet Lock deactivation, so tested those suggestions internally in the company to see whether it is easy to be instructed to users and be performed by those users.
Light Interaction
I expected that the user will not experience discomfort from locked physical buttons because most of cleaning missions starts from the app and there is no functional limitation on the app even Child & Pet Lock is activated. However, there are use cases that users want to start cleaning by pressing the physical button on the robot. Key message I tried to convey through the light feedback on the robot when user presses the button on the robot is to : 1) clearly remind user that Child & Pet Lock is activated, and 2) let users know that the robot is not broken but can't do what they ask.
To test this feedback in context, I made interactive animations that user can press buttons on the robot or the app while the robot is cleaning and paused. The test was moderated and opened to ask any questions during the test.
APP UX/UI
UX design focuses on how to communicate the robot status
when the physical button is locked clearly and at a glance.
UI Comparison
Our team expected that users will not frequently change the feature activation status if they have had a control issue because of kids or pets. But there was still a worry about status transparency. There was a debate in the team whether the status should be visible on the Home screen since there is no limitation of functions and services on the app side. But eventually, we ended up with a small icon on the Home screen after comparing variety of UI components.
Final UX Flow
Based on all design decisions from user testing, design comparison, and prototypes, final UX flow including app screens, light/sound/voice feedback was handed over to the Dev team. For both FW and Mobile Dev team, it was important to clearly mention triggers, app/robot feedback, and frequency/timing/repetition (especially on the robot physical UX).
