Design at Latch
From September 2018 to January 2021, I was a product designer at Latch, a smart lock company that makes hardware and software for managing access in apartment buildings. As the most senior designer on our small (2 person!) team, I had the chance to work on many projects and wear many different hats.
Some of my responsibilities at Latch included:
Leading research and software design for our most complex new offerings, including the intercom and our smart home integration.
Working with our engineering and product teams to improve Manager Web, the web portal that building managers use to set up and provision access.
Leading all of our user research! This includes gathering feedback from internal stakeholders (often sales & ops), leading all user research initiatives, and documenting my findings.
Work with the business development and product teams to explore new offerings and integrations (think in-unit services, unattended leasing, short term rentals, etc).
Product managing some smaller-scale projects including updates to our installer app and security improvements to our log on experience.
Deep dive into the intercom project
One of the big projects I’ve worked on is the intercom, which touches on a number of different products:
The intercom device itself (hardware and software, though an industrial designer led hardware)
The Latch consumer app, where residents recieve calls and can remotely unlock the front door
The Latch installer app, where installers install and set up the intercom
The Latch building manager portal, where building managers configure the intercom and ensure it is working correctly
Our starting point
For years, building developers and managers had been asking for a complete access system — intercom included. Because we didn’t have an intercom, building managers needed to buy and manage a completely separate system. Managing multiple systems is time consuming and error prone for building management, and it was causing us to lose sales.
In 2019, the product team was finally given the directive to build and bring to market a Latch intercom. Leadership had a rough sense of some user flows and how the intercom should work, so we started with their basic flows:
Visitor experience: Visitors navigate to a unit, then select a person, then initiate a call.
Resident experience: Residents receive a call, pick up, and unlock the door. They could see a live video stream if the building has cameras installed.
Initial research
Before proceeding with the designs, we did research on existing intercoms to learn how they work, how they’re set up and managed, who uses them and how, and what pain points users have.
We talked to installers, building managers, residents, guests, Fedex workers, and couriers/food delivery personnel. There were many interesting findings that impacted our requirements including:
Brainstorming and defining high-level requirements
After conducting our initial research, I led brainstorming sessions with the intercom PM and lead engineer to decide how the intercom would work and integrate with our existing platform.
There were a number of challenges we faced in the process about how this new system would work:
We needed to create a new object called a “Unit,” which didn’t exist, and figure out where in our system it lives.
Only residents who have access to the connected door should show up on the intercom.
This was our first non-lock product, so we had to figure out where in our system it would live and how residents would be added to it.
Designs
In addition to working on our core products (building manager portal, resident app, and installer app), I was responsible for the look and feel of the intercom interface. Some of the areas I worked on include sound design (we worked with a contractor on this!), accessibility mode, and how backlighting on the buttons would work. Here is an example of some of the details I worked through with our leadership team.
Building manager portal
The building manager portal is where building managers set up intercoms, add people, configure the settings, and confirm that the intercom is up and running.
Resident app
The resident app is where residents receive intercom calls and remotely let guests in. This is also where residents can configure their intercom display name and contact info.
Intercom
This is the intercom that is mounted outside a building and used by guests to get let in. We wanted this to be as simple and intuitive as possible.
We wanted to make sure the intercom is accessible to all, so we built flows to support both hearing-impaired and sight-impaired visitors. One of the engineers wrote this blog post explaining the feature and how it was implemented.
Installer app
The intercom is installed and initially set up by someone who specializes in installing access systems. In addition to mounting and wiring the device, the installer uses our installer app to configure the device and link it to the door it controls.
An informal usability test
One of our research initiatives was an informal in-office test of an intercom prototype. We had a got a prototype of the intercom body from our manufacturing team and inserted a tablet to serve as the intercom screen.
I tested with 11 people I found around the office. We had some expected and unexpected findings that helped us refine the design:
Most participants initially thought it was a touch screen
The initials were surprising to some
Participants wanted to navigate directly to a person instead of first selecting a unit
When drilled into a unit, there’s no unit label name to reassure users that the correct unit was selected
Release, feedback, and success
The intercom was finally released in Fall 2020, after about a year and a half of design work! Because of Covid we were not able to do in-person testing, but our implementation team has been passing along feedback that will inform the updates we make in the future.