There are several package options that SimpliSafe offers. Each one includes devices relevant to your needs. As a first time or returning customer, you can also select individual products to add to your system. The base station is the brain of the system, however, and users need to start setup with this device first so other devices can establish a relationship with the home.

Check out the SimpliSafe packages and devices

Physical installation can be a difficult step for SimpliSafe users. This is because an entry sensor is functionally different from a water sensor and, therefore, has a different install process. The hardware team at SimpliSafe is amazing, and did a great job designing intuitive sensors and cameras, but users still needed pairing, setup, and install instructions to support the process for each device. After recruiting and testing different versions of the installation flow experience, we learned that all devices do have something in common - Participants had an easier time setting up the device when shown an illustration with contextual queues about where to place the product (eg. water sensor under a boiler).

Note: Some of the products required a physical field test, which we conducted outside of the participants home.

Designing a seamless user experience for hardware and software products is challenging. There are many complexities that need to be accounted for, like what happens when a device gets disconnected from the system. The user needs to be notified of the problem, and get help fixing it. This required the design team to have a close relationship with hardware and firmware engineers (think of firmware as the translator between hardware and software) to identify the potential friction points and troubleshooting steps.

I worked closely with product and engineering to design edge case flows for events like disconnected wifi, an unrecognized base station, and low battery states for the SimpliSafe cameras.

The experience also needed to account for a range of complexities including three generations of hardware and firmware, and limited wifi and cellular coverage due to industrial interference.