Vivint Smart Home DIY Setup

Summary

Professional smart home installation creates a number of challenges for both the business and the customer.

Installation times can run up to 4 hours, resulting in high overhead costs and great inconvenience to the customer.

How can we simplify the installation process such that a person can easily and quickly install their smart home themselves?

Company

Vivint

My Role

Lead UX , illustration, visual design, instructional design, content design

Collaborations

Research and testing, audio design, packaging, hardware, marketing

Project Goal

In order to have a successful DIY solution, we felt is was essential that the experience be simple, quick and easy:

  • Easy, clear, and convenient process.

  • Positive first experience with the product.

  • 90% successful install without calling support.

  • Each device installed in under 5 minutes.

  • Full system install in under 30 minutes.

Research

I shadowed install technicians in Denver and Colorado Springs to understand the installation process end to end.

Key insights

  • Installations take anywhere from 2-4 hours.

  • Installation requires access all over the home, making the experience awkward for customers.

  • Installing the smart home hub is disruptive, requiring alterations to drywall.

  • Troubleshooting is by far the biggest contributor to long install times. This is usually due to poor connectivity or faulty hardware.

  • Very little customer education takes place leading to intimidated and confused customers.

Explorations

We explored many different possible solutions before landing on the final design.

Testing and validation

We tested our explorations against our goals with over 20 participants and iterated the design based on our findings. Our testing started with low fidelity prototypes and ended with a beta group using the fully functional product.

Setup overview

From Amazon delivery to brand-new smart home.

Package arrives

DIY packages can vary in makeup and were to be fulfilled by Amazon. As a result, we wouldn't have control over the order of devices packages in Amazon shipments. Customers needed to be directed to start with the smart home hub to begin setting up their devices. We used packaging and installation instructions in box to direct people.

Device Setup

Customers would be guided through the set up process on the smart hub. NFC technology allowed people to add devices to their smart home by scanning each device at the hub, solving the device pairing process issues so often experienced by professional technicians.

Physical installation of devices

Each device package included printed instructions for physical installation. We also created content for the web that included instructional videos and step by step instructions.

Account creation

Once all devices are set up, a text message is sent to the customer's phone to direct them to account creation on the web.

Results

We received overwhelming positive feedback among beta participants. The installation process was easy and straightforward for most people and many felt empowered by the experience.