Introduction
Lollipop Smart Baby Camera is an award-winning product that is known for its precise smart detection that keeps babies safe and healthy. To optimise the overall user experience, dashboard and settings were the primary focuses for this update.
Dashboard Optimisation
An evaluation was conducted first to identify potential issues with the previous version of dashboard. Combined with user feedback from App Store and Google Play Store, we summarised following problems with older dashboard:
1. Too Many Buttons on the Video Player
As the image below shows, there were more than 5 buttons on the video player (and more upcoming features to add on top of it such as picture-in-picture mode). Besides, camera controls such as snapshot and push to talk should be easy for users to access rather than only display temporarily when users tap the video player.
2. Unorganised Information
Information and camera controls were not sorted in a logical order aligned with the principles of Information Architecture. For instance, camera controls like snapshot and push to talk were placed on video player while music player was in the status report down below.
Solutions
To solve the problems mentioned above, we implemented solutions as follows.
1. Categorising Functionalities
To make each feature easier for users to locate, we sorted them by their purposes. For instance, features that acquire data from camera in real time including Background Play, Snapshot, Push to Talk, Timeline and Music are categorised as camera controls and placed in the same section. On the other hand, the reports based on data analysis or statistics such as Events, Sleep Tracking and Environment are classified as baby status. By doing so, we built a clearer information architecture that allows users to quickly find the functionality or information they require.
2. Consistent UI/UX Pattern
To improve the navigation, a rule of UI/UX patterns was implemented to maintain the consistency of the app. For example, when a user clicks on a camera control button, a pop-up page will appear to inform him/her of the instructions. As such, parents will no longer miss the precious moments due to the auto-hidden snapshot buttons.
Settings Optimisation
Aside from the dashboard page, this update also included the settings page as we found following problems with it.
1. Inconsistent User Experience
As shown in the image below, the previous settings page had an inconsistency problem. While some list items took users to the next layer, others showed hidden items by expanding the list content vertically. Such differences in one page not only could cause confusions to users but also complicate the app's maintenance process.
2. Lack of Configurability
Considering the wide-ranging functionalities the camera has to offer, we also agreed that users should be provided with more customisations in response to various user scenarios. For example, the previous version of Lollipop app only focused on users with one baby monitor. However, as the brand grows, increasing parents would like to buy multiple cameras for different purposes. Therefore, thorough considerations were required to meet this goal.
Solutions
To address the problems mentioned above, we implemented the following solutions.
1. Applying consistent UI/UX Patterns
Similar to the Dashboard, no matter what item users click on, it will always take them the the next layer of list. Besides, to improve the consistency, we also made tweaks to the pop-up dialogs according to Human Design Guideline and Material Design Guideline.
2. Increasing Configurability
Considering different user scenarios, we decided to update the multi-camera settings first so that users can turn on/off the notifications of individual baby monitor. In this way, users will still notified by selected cameras without being overwhelmed by notifications at once.
