This is a look at the SmartThings app if downloaded by a new user before receiving a SmartThings hub. The hub setup experience will be written up separately.
Good bits:
- The new user does not have to sign up to sample the app. He can choose to “Skip and explore,” which lets him enter a version of the app’s UI where he can browse categories of devices that SmartThings supports, see the top actions it enables, watch installation videos, and purchase those devices. This option to explore gives the new user a free sample. Before committing to an account, he can make sure SmartThings supports the devices and actions he cares about.
- SimpleThings also does not force a new, not-signed-in user to go through an intro tour or video before he can enter this exploration mode, and is not interrupted during his exploration until he tries to connect a device.
- Once signed in, the UI is updated in a way that clearly evolves from its more limited “Explore” mode state. It introduces 2 new sections while maintaining the same general layout, allowing the user to apply his learnings from the first mode to the second.
- Once signed up, the “Hello, Home” section uses inline cues to show the newly-signed-in user how his home will use conversation to keep him updated about important status changes. It also helps avoid having a blank slate.
To be improved:
- The SmartThings app assumes that all users who download it already own a SmartThings hub. However, there may be users who download it because it was promoted in an app store or press. They may not realize a physical device is needed. The app does not disclose the concept of the SmartThings hub until after the new user creates an account, which is jarring as he may have assumed the app itself would serve as a controller. The SmartThings hub doesn’t even show up as an option to purchase in the “Explore” mode device list. If there are major conditions that need to be met in order for users to have an expected experience, products need to disclose those early on in the onboarding experience.
- The “Explore” mode doesn’t introduce the user to the “Hello, Home” section which is an essential part of the full app’s experience. SmartThings should consider enabling this section for a new user, allowing him to at least see the default placeholder conversation.
- It is not fully explained why a SmartThings account is needed. Tapping certain actions will result in a terse sign up dialog saying “You’ll need to create an account to set up SmartThings,” but no further detail. The app should consider being clearer about how an account will be used to improve the new user’s life.
- Once signed in, the app shifts its user education to more disruptive coachmarks or mini-intro tour overlays. For example, there is a multi-page overlay instructing a user how to draw a geofence around his home, which is a sub-task in the setup wizard. Not only are coachmarks anti-patterns because they block direct interaction, but it is an excessive pattern for such a sub-task. Similarly, one of these intro tour overlays immediately bombards the new user when he enters the “Hello, Home” section for the first time. Both of these feel out of place compared to the lightweight guided interaction of the “Explore” mode. Using too many different styles of user education can make an app’s design feel unpolished and frustrate a user because it is unexpected.