Verizon CoHo (ConnetedHome) Mobile App
“Consumers want a personal home service, not a bunch of connected smart things.”
Connected Home (CoHo) is a pivotal mobile prototype developed for Verizon's IoT initiatives. This journey was fueled by a high business objective: to give customers a mobile app that effortlessly streamlines their everyday household tasks and orchestrates events by seamlessly connecting many smart devices. With CoHo, the overarching UX principle orbits around the aspiration to create a user experience that feels nothing short of natural and intuitive. This ethos translates into a conversation-based user interface, where interactions with the app mirror the fluidity of human conversation, providing users with an effortlessly engaging and user-friendly interface. CoHo is not just a mobile app; it's a testament to the marriage of technology and simplicity, enhancing how people interact with and manage their connected devices in their homes.
Business Opportunity
In 2015, the tech world was excited over the emergence of connected home smart houses within the Internet of Things (IoT) landscape. Key industry players such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit made their debut, setting the stage for a transformative future in home automation. During this pivotal period, numerous experts and thought leaders made bold predictions about the evolving landscape of "Your Home in 2025."
Robots everywhere
Smart content
Visual cues
Interconnected awareness
Energy storage
Speech-enabled
Better contextualization
Given the backdrop of these exciting developments and the advent of Verizon's most advanced network technology, this presents a unique opportunity for us to explore new revenue channels. By offering comprehensive managed services tailored to the modern household, we can position ourselves as leaders in delivering the connected, intelligent, and efficient homes consumers envision for 2025 and beyond.
UX Principles
We started by laying down three main design principles,
This mobile App must provide personal service while requiring minimum user interaction effort.
This mobile App must integrate with other smart devices such as SmartTV and Speakers so it has omnipresence inside a house so users can interact with it anywhere, anytime inside a house.
This mobile App must be smart enough to notice things, alert the house members, or give suggestions.
After multiple iterations of rapid design exercises, we concluded that a conversation-based user interface fit our business goals and design principles well. Using natural language to interact with users instead of form-based UI fulfilled our design principle No. 1. To enhance this personal service feeling, we designed a staff team for the App. We assigned each "staff" according to the App features, such as Butler, Gardner, and Security Guard.
Butler meets the owner
The security guy keeps the house safe
The gardener takes good care garden tools and devices
