Garage Door Programming
ROLE:
UIUX Design, UX research, Visual Design and standards.
Collaboration with hardware, firmware and software development.
The top user-complaint for universal garage remote controls is PROGRAMMING.
Over 28% (around 3.2M) garages are left unprogrammed due to frustrations over this task.
PROGRAM GOALS
ARQ Universal transmitter uses a mobile app to guide and empower users to program their garage door, lights and more.
The guided process is compatible with over 90% of existing garage door openers.
CHALLENGES + PAIN POINTS
Users do not know the brand of opener they have, the model number or year
Users are confused by the timing and feedback mechanisms used in traditional programming
Users are unaware that they can program multiple devices to their transmitter
Technical prowess and literacy can vary
EARLY RESEARCH AND JOURNEY MAPS
With the complexities and challenges on the hardware side, it was necessary to document and depict failure modes for a multitude of journeys, situations and devices.
Based on engineering limitations, a Happy Path was designed for in-vehicle credentialing. This approach quickly needed to be adjusted for a mobile app, allowing the largest segment of users without connected vehicles to use the product.
Step by Step flow Diagram
visuals were created for happy path and error paths, since different scenarios and devices created offshoots.
Pain points on expectations based on hardware limitations were documented and used in wireframe development
Happy Path
A direct User Journey is simple for an owner of a vehicle with connected hardware. How do we adapt the messaging and flow for the majority of users on a mobile phone where space is limited and feedback can become disconnected?
INITIAL WIREFRAMES/ MOCKUPS + USABILTY RESEARCH
Initial wireframes were built to test general user flow, and medium-fidelity mockups were added in order to lend believability to user research.
Pre-Programming Journey Wireframes
Complexities over the variety of end-point devices required a robust Pre-Programming User Journey to be designed. This skeleton was the base for the first round of mockup prototypes.
First Round of Mockups- Prototype
Early feedback quickly told us that users needed verification on successful task completion to keep moving forward.
Adding realistic text brought new complexities around clear presentation and context to the user.
RESEARCH FEEDBACK AND PROTOTYPE REFINEMENT
User research was a moderated usability study, where 24 users were interviewed and asked to program the transmitter from the app. The users were asked to rate the experience on against existing programming methods.
The study was conducted over 4 days, in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Following the timing cues necessary for the system to complete the RF learning process was frustrating and miscalculated
Users felt buttons on the app could be used to program their physical counterparts in the vehicle
The amount of steps required for certain workflows started to overwhelm
First mockup Flow
PROJECT OUTPUTS AND NEXT STEPS
Based on user research data and the testing done in several different prototype iterations, ARQ programming was launched on Rivian vehicles as an in-dash control in 2022