Background

At the beginning of the project, my teammates (an industrial design student and graphic design student) and I were given a random product from our Artefact mentors. With this product, we were given the goal of "transforming its poor user experience into something exceptional."

Through research, we found that users were saying that the product's interface was very confusing and stressful, and that its quality did not match the price they paid. We solved this by focusing on two things - to create a more modern experience for users and to deliver understanding along with information. We added a data-tracking feature to our baby monitor that makes it easy to see deviations from the baby's normal activity, delivering that deeper understanding.

My Role

The Original

We started off the project by un-boxing and testing out this product ourselves. We soon found out that the interface was very un-intuitive. The arrows are on a vertical axis instead of the axis that they are pointing, the icons were unclear, and the menu was confusing.

Market Research

We then did some user and competitor research. We found that although this product was ranked #6 on Amazon's best-selling baby monitors, its reviews did not reflect the success that it was seeing. When we looked at reviews from multiple websites to find out why, we found that a lot of users had the same complaints - the product was very confusing to use and its quality did not match the price they had paid for it.

User Research

We interviewed parents, some new and some already experienced with multiple kids, to figure out what they wanted most in a baby monitor. From these interviews and our prior research, we concluded that parents wanted to know two things:

Is my child okay?

If there's a problem, why?

User Persona

Through all of this research, we found that new parents were the most common baby monitor users. They are excited yet anxious about their first child and want to do everything in their power to make sure their child is safe.

The average age of this user group is 26 years old and they are pretty tech-savvy compared to the older, more experienced parents.

Our Plan

Deliver understanding on top of information

Being able to see and hear your child during a meltdown is one thing, but understanding why it happened is another. We wanted to give parents the tools to further understand their child's state and to learn how to prevent future crises.

Create an interface that meets modern expectations

Since the average new parent in America is around 26 years old, they are more tech-savvy than ever and expect high quality experiences in tech products.

Sketches & Wireframes

With this phase, we produced many sketches to help us really target what the user would want from an interface. We played around with the orientation of the baby monitor, the method of interaction (full touch-screen vs analog vs a mixture of the two), thought about and sketched out different scenarios in which parents might use the baby monitor, thought about placement of icons for ease of use, etc.

User Testing

We created paper prototypes and tested some parents and a few peers to get feedback on our design. We were told that our icons menu organization were still a bit confusing and so we went back and refined it.

Visual Designs (Part 1)

After getting feedback from our peers and our mentors from Artefact, we decided on a landscape orientation to allow users to see their baby and the room as much as possible. This was something that was very important for a lot of people we tested. We also decided on an all touch-screen interface. Parents are usually doing other tasks while looking and interacting with their baby monitor and so having an all touch-screen interface will make it easier for them to select things on the interface without needing to hold the baby monitor in order to press the corresponding buttons. At this stage in the process, we designed our data-tracking feature and got more feedback from our Artefact mentors.

Visual Designs (Part 2)

We refined our visual designs a few more times, this time focusing more on the consistency of the layout and navigation and the icons. We played around to see how an app for this baby monitor would look like, especially with our new data-tracking feature, but quickly decided that due to the time we had left, we should focus on really perfecting the visual design. We got more feedback from our mentors and then proceeded to our final design variations.

Our Solution

Before... and after! We concluded our visual designs with a black interface background, something very neutral and won't distract from the video of the baby. We refined our icons, focusing on making it very friendly and sized well, and mocked up how our designs would look like through motion graphics. We then went down to Seattle to present our final pitch to Artefact, in which we received very positive feedback from.

Understand Patterns

With this new data-tracking feature, you're now able to toggle through 4 data modes to compare and see patterns in what caused your baby's activity and movement to deviate!

Play Music for your Baby

Play a lullaby for your baby to calm them down or brighten their mood, or provide background noise to help your baby fall asleep.

Talk to your Baby

Talk to your baby even when you're in a different room! Make them feel safe and secure by letting them hear your voice.

Sync up to 4 Cameras

Sync, manage, and switch between 4 cameras at a time! Have peace of mind knowing that everyone in your house is safe and happy.

Takeaways

In this end-to-end UX process, I learned a tremendous amount about user research, usability testing, and user-centered design. I learned how to scope down when needed, and to create a successful redesign and pitch. If I were to revisit this project, I would definitely test our final designs on real parents and refine as needed. I would also start designing an app for the baby monitor, as this was something that we left out of our scope due to time constraints. It would definitely make our product even stronger and an even bigger competitor in the market. Thanks for following me through this process!