Aeris Health

aeris is the first provider of complete indoor air quality treatment systems and offers a unique line of air purifiers capable of dealing with any kind of air pollution at home or at work.
The company was founded in 2014 in China and eventually expanded to Zurich and the United States. Its first app was launched in 2015.
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This case study and project started in July 2021 until the end of November 2021, when it was acquired by iRobot - Check project iRobot

Problem

We have noticed that the current application of our purifiers is hardly used because users do not understand its functions.

Solution

The app will be completely redesigned so that the user will know what to do with his air purifier as soon as he sees the screen. We will reorganise all the screens so that the modes, programmes, analytics and all the settings and status of the extrapolar elements of the air purifier can be reviewed and available from the product page.

Question

How should we help users to be protected from any pollutants throughout the day?

The Challenge

In my second week of working on this project, I was confronted with a number of significant challenges.
The first challenge was time. The deadline, which was set at the beginning of the project as one year and a half, was reduced to less than five months. The reason for this is as follows: At that time, the employees were unaware that procurement agreements were already being made between iRobot and Aeris. As a result, the app redesign had to be brought forward considerably.
Secondly, we were unable to conduct the planned research, including usability testing with real users, online surveys and an in-depth customer journey. This had already been included in the plan but was rejected by the management team.
Finally, the plan included pre- and post-launch testing with real users.

The Goals

In order to ascertain the full extent of the interaction issues experienced by users, it was necessary to identify rapid and cost-effective solutions.

Meet with users who consume the purifiers through an online survey and brainstorming sessions with Aeris employees.
Engage with the Sales and Support team to ascertain the most prevalent issues encountered by users and the solutions provided via telephone.
Benchmarking and testing the app, website and product in question will provide invaluable insight into the competition.
The app was redesigned to be intuitive and easy to use for existing users, with the aim of avoiding confusion.
A new onboarding design was created and managed, with the objective of facilitating the process.
The functions of each screen were organised and access to the analysis and programming of each product was facilitated through the product screen.
An internal test was conducted in the company to identify potential interaction or experience issues.

User Interview (Grouping)

Given the unavailability of the users for this particular phase of the project, we sent an email to all Aeris employees in the Swiss, Boston and China offices, requesting their assistance in conducting a group user interview. We were fortunate to have a number of employees from these offices participate, including two from China, three from Boston and five from Switzerland. Through these online and group interviews, I identified a crucial insight: the user was seeking a quick and straightforward interaction.

Insights

Understand user pain points through research and interviews

Clarity is of the utmost importance. It was evident from the feedback that users prefer content that is easily understandable and uses straightforward language.
Intuitive: The app should be straightforward to use and allow users to understand the capabilities of their purifiers without having to navigate more than three clicks.
Learning: Users wanted to learn about the product and understand how to clean their homes effectively. They also wanted to comprehend the data displayed on the screen.
Guided flow: Users appreciated when apps guided them through the interface and onboarding process.

Scope

In light of the aforementioned information, I concentrated my efforts on the following functions:

The registration and login process has been streamlined for simplicity and efficiency.
The product screen has been designed with intuitive navigation, allowing users to access fan modes and settings with minimal effort.
Outlining the various programming options to ensure users are aware of the most suitable choice for their needs.

From concept to wireframes: Designing an experience to improve our users' air quality

Having gained a thorough understanding of the user's requirements, I initiated the design process by conducting an in-depth analysis of the main competitors in order to identify potential concepts.

In the air purifier market, Aeris faces direct competition from three other brands: Mila, Molecule and Dyson.Mila was the first brand to capture my attention in terms of its aesthetic appeal and unique approach to feature management and exploitation, showcased through a distinctive visual identity. Next, there was Molecule, which had a comparable product and an app that was more minimalist in design and detailed in content. Finally, Dyson's functionality helped us identify potential avenues for our product. Our objective was to combine the best elements of the selected competitors to optimise our app and product, taking into account that we were undertaking a comprehensive redesign, which afforded us significant flexibility, but with the deadline fast approaching, any decisions had to be made with precision and care.

A vacuum claening and an Airpurigier clean the air in the kitchen at the same time

APP MAP

problem

The cloud, managed by the companies themselves over the web, was confusing to manage and the controls were not understood. In addition, analytical data and programmes were difficult to read.

solution

Following the redesign of the app, an analysis of the Cloud was conducted to ascertain how users had been utilising it, including which components were most and least used and the reasons behind this. Based on this analysis, changes were implemented. Given the time frame, this was a challenging task.

question

How can we help businesses manage all their devices in an organised, simple and fast way?

The first contact was by email

Not only were the cloud screens redesigned, but so were the emails, as the first contact with the cloud would be via email.A design in line with the redesign of the application, with a clearer and more consistent style.

conclusion

Results and impact:
The conversion rate exceeded the percentage we had set out to achieve. The heat maps we created of the app before and after the redesign showed us how users understood the app's features and screens. There was a positive reduction in the number of problems and bugs, and in the final user survey we conducted, we found that users of the new app were happy with the change.
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Key challenges and lessons learned:
The first was to organise and manage a team of back-end and front-end designers in different geographical locations.
Knowing how to choose the right methodology for the delivery time and how to change it if necessary when unforeseen events occur, such as a sudden acquisition of the company.