Designers
DK&A: Florian Plank, Lauri Laaksonen / EGGS Design: Henning R Nielsen / Sector Alarm: Kalle Asikainen
Year
2024
Category
Product
Country
Norway
Design Studio / Department
DK Associates Oy
Three questions to the project team
What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
Sector Alarm has a broad range of customers differing in age, language spoken, and level of technology adaptation, leading to various challenges: Different languages meant that designs had to accommodate for extreme components scaling due to changes in the copy. Accessibility issues such as layout scaling when users set screen zoom or increased text size significantly. Dependency on the hardware that could negatively impact the user experience (slow loading times, connectivity issues etc.). Existence of the old system, which badly affected ratings.
What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
Witnessing the app's rating instantly grow after resolving initial bugs and releasing new features was a highlight. In some markets, it increased from less than 2.0 to 4.5 with new rating’s being consistently above 4.5. The 'aha!' moment was realizing how crucial it is to consider all device types and not compromise accessibility—for instance, by blocking layout scaling. Instead, we made it flexible so that everyone can use the app, no matter the device. The low point was when we pushed some design decisions not considering 100% of technological limitations of the old backend. This forced us to find workarounds later on, which required additional time, but fortunately it turned out to work just as good as the initial proposition.
Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
The product has the potential to become one of the most user-friendly and advanced home security systems on the market, hiding the complexity of the underlying technology from the users, catering not only to the needs of tech-savvy users but also to the elderly and people with disabilities. We believe that Sector Alarm will successfully scale to many more markets, providing high quality, fully integrated safety, security and smart home solutions.
