Security Cam App
Introduction
This was a freelance project, where I was responsible for designing the MVP for a security camera application. The core team consisted of three more people, each involved with technology/requirements, business, or customer service management.
Laying the Process
We started with a deep dive, reviewing the presentations from the business partners: their objectives, market situation, and assumptions. Along the way, I was mapping the information from a design perspective, as well as documenting my own research and presenting it back to the team.
Based on our discussions, I mapped eight types of users who could interact with the app: Residents, Passengers, Superintendents, Security Guards, Police Officers, Property Owners, Security Dealers, Call Center Assistants.
For MVP purposes, we would focus on two of them: Superintendents and Security Dealers. For these ones, I created user personas. These personas were extensively discussed and validated by the team, which helped us to drive the work ahead.
Another important activity during this initial phase was the research about similar known applications such as Nest, Yi Camera, Hikvision, Wyze, and Manything. I tested and mapped them on a board. This became the grounds for another set of team discussions where we talked about the pros, cons, and gaps of each one for these apps.
At this point, the team had a thorough understanding of the application goals and the type of problems we were trying to solve. I was ready to start tackling the problems.
I proposed a process based on the book Sprint, by Jake Knapp. Every week, we would choose an area of the app and run through the process: Choose target > Sketch solutions > Vote > Prototype > Test.
Sprint, by Jake Knapp. His podcast Product Breakfast Club is also a good resource
Design Progress and Results
Week after week, the app began to materialize. The main structure was defined, and the details about each area began to emerge:
In some situations, we found that the standard components would not support the experience we were trying to provide. In those cases, we had to create customized components, and define their behaviour and structure.
Screen flows and prototypes were also commonly produced. They were essential for the team’s discussions and validations:
Visual Language and Handoff
The visual language was also developed during the design process. The objective was to make it clean and friendly, with a good amount of empty space between the elements. The main screens and custom components were rebuilt in high-fidelity mode. In the end, the MVP was ready for development.
