Smart Home devices are still a reliable new technology, but the market is now flooded as the demand for Smart Home products is growing at an exponential rate. Although many of these products are innovative and of high quality, many of them lag behind their competitors. While the actual “smart” device can be well designed and manufactured, the related web or mobile applications are often greatly lacking in several key areas. This adversely affects the end-user experience and can be a decisive factor between the success or failure of a product.
Smart Home devices range from lamp switches, thermostats, security systems, and even fully functioning robots. Smart technologies are currently being implemented almost everywhere in the home, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. While the variety of Smart Home products varies quite thoroughly, usability should be a key factor in its overall success. In a highly competitive market, any product that is not intuitive to use, the customer will simply switch to a competitor's product ... fact!
Traditional usability testing will be isolated from a specific web application or mobile application. However, when using smart home devices, usability testing should cover the entire product, that is, the device itself and its associated applications. For smart home devices that have been tested at a high level, this will result in the user having a positive experience with the product.
A good QA company will evaluate the smart home device and its associated web applications or mobile applications along with any supporting documentation. From there, specific test approaches and methodologies can be defined and documented in a formal test plan. Then an additional set of test cases will often be developed. Many ease-of-use problems are often visible during the landing process. Since this is the area that is commonly used to configure a new smart home device, it is of utmost importance that the user has a positive experience.
Working methodically, not only on landings, but also on all end-user workflows, user scenarios, supporting help / documentation, etc. Testing can reveal all usability problems that can be clearly documented for all product stakeholders. The development team can then work with usability error reporting to solve problems. Ideally, user-friendliness testing should be done before the product launches, however, since most smart home devices and related applications can be updated with new firmware / software updates, usability testing can also be very effective after the initial product launch.
