LittleBird Mobile App Guest Access Management

LittleBird is a smart home automation and smart access application that allows residents of communities to provide guests with access to their communities and apartment units. The LittleBird mobile app’s interface for sharing access credentials with guests was an overwhelming and confusing single-screen interface.

Challenge

The LittleBird app's single-screen guest access interface lacks the clarity necessary for property residents to understand the implications of their selected options, creating significant risks to both property and personal security. This redesign project enabled me to update the interface to a simplified, step-by-step guest access management wizard. To build the best resident experience, I examined competitor applications and identified successful and unsuccessful approaches to guest access credential management.

Objective

My goal for this project was to simplify the guest access user flow, reducing the friction that apartment residents face when granting property guests access to their communities and apartment units. During the research phase, I conducted interviews with apartment residents, property guests, and property managers to identify the pain points they experienced while using the LittleBird guest access user interface.

Pain Points

  • The guest access management screen was a single-screen interface comprising more than 12 different options for users, creating a cognitive overload that resulted in some users ignoring the guest access options altogether.
  • Many options lacked descriptive context, making it challenging for users to understand the meaning behind different access types and access period types, which created property security risks when residents accidentally granted guests greater access than necessary.
  • The property guest list and property guest setup flow shared a single screen, making it challenging for guests to find and manage their list of property guests.

Guest Access Management

The updated property guest list includes more detailed information about each guest, including the type of access, the access period, and guest contact details. The updated property list helps provide residents with peace of mind as they can quickly identify who has access to their community and apartment units. Residents can also add guests from their contacts promptly and edit or delete existing property guests.

Guest Access Setup

I broke down the process of granting guest access into a simple step-by-step setup wizard updated with clear and relevant copywriting that helps users comprehend the implications of their selected options. First, residents can input their guests' names and contact information. Their access credentials are shared with the contact information provided by the user.

Then, residents can select between two different Guest Access Types: Community Access, which grants guests access to the resident's community, and Unit Access, which grants guests access to both the resident's community and their unit.

Finally, residents can select between three different access period types.

  • Today, it provides guests with access until midnight.
  • Daily access allows residents to grant daily recurring access on selected days of the week.
  • Custom access will enable residents to grant guests one-time or recurring access on specific days of the week within a specified date and time range.

Access Period Selection

  • If the user selects 'Today Access,' no additional options are available to them. They are navigated directly to the Guest Access confirmation screen.
  • If the user selects Daily access, they can choose recurring 24-hour access on specific days of the week.
  • If the user selects Custom access, they can grant their guest access during a specific time frame, on specific days of the week, or within a particular date range.

Editing Guest Access

I faced a challenge in deciding on the best approach to editing guest access. Sending users through the entire guest access flow could be beneficial, as it allows them to adjust guest access settings at each step. However, this approach required users to take unnecessary steps if they needed to make minor changes. Ultimately, I designed an interface that allows users to adjust access control settings as needed without having to navigate through the entire guest access scheduling flow.