MOTO LOOP

Family and home are connected in one place, making it easy for users to know what loved ones are up to and to get the most from smart home devices.

User needs and business goals intersect

As the device manufacturer producing DROID products for Verizon in 2015, Motorola agreed to design and build a Verizon/DROID exclusive software experience that would compliment Verizon's business and appeal to Verizon customers. A small team of Motorola designers and product managers explored and developed several concept directions, and the team was most most excited to pursue a family management app that connected with smart home devices to augment both the family communication and home experience.

Verizon had recently begun to sell Nest, Dropcam, Philips Hue Light products, and more in-store. Through our market research and primary user research, we found smart home product adoption to still be quite low for everyday consumers, but we did find user needs related to family communication and coordination. Additionally, we identified a unique opportunity to make smart home products more intelligent within a family multi-user environment, a context smart home products had so far ignored.

The Moto Loop strategy was to create value for all families with multiple smartphone users, and offer unique value to those who also used smart home products like Nest or Hue lights. Additionally, we sought to leverage and connect to unique features of Moto and DROID phones like Moto Voice and the Command Center homescreen widget, making the overall product more compelling. The final version of Moto Loop provided easy family coordination via map location tracking and an automatic "check-in" feature, and intelligent smart home product adaptations, like thermostat adjustment based on the locations of multiple family members.

My role: UX Design Lead

I led initial concept definition with key work partners in product and engineering and created early design sketches. I then led and oversaw UX design work by 2 contractors—an interaction/UX designer and a visual designer. Both designers were part of the agile scrum team developing the first release, which launched on 2015 Moto DROID products, DROID Turbo 2 and DROID Maxx 2. 

Key design contributors: Adam Tramposh (UX Designer), Joyce Hansen (Visual Designer), Kat Allen (Content Strategist), Chris Clare (Creative Director)

Process & design artifacts

Note: The internal name for Moto Loop was Droid Unity.