The Orange technical support team were experiencing a high number of calls relating to users WiFi strength and reach. Orange wanted a way to help and empower users to improve their signal strength at home, without the need of an engineers time and expertise. They decided to explore Augmented Reality (AR) as possible solution, a new technology at the time, that could give the user a visual representation of their WiFi signal.
Tasks
As this was a new technology the starting point was research, understanding how this technology could be useful in this particular scenario was very important.
As my knowledge of the technology grew, I began sketching and exploring ideas, from gamifying the experience to keeping it utility focused. After some initial feedback we decided to keep the application ‘utility focused’ as gamifying this type of experience would cause confusion for the users. We also listened to the users concern about it being a technical solution to a technical problem, which we addressed with a tutorial.
As our ideas of experience became clearer, it was important to discuss it with our developers, to understand the technical feasibility of an AR WiFi mapping app. We explored how to measure WiFi signal strength, if speed tests were possible and if LiDAR was required to build a 3D map, these discussions helped us to build a functional foundation to design upon.
Actions
Now with a clear direction, I began to wireframe the chosen experience, this consisted of letting the user place measure points in their AR space, run speed tests from specific locations, all the while in the background LiDAR was building a texturised 3D map of their home with their measure point locations.
With the prototype now in development, it was important to test the experience and address bugs and glitches, this was a big part of our design cycle, and a close relationship with developers was vital to its success.
For menus and navigations the well established Orange design system was used. There were no augmented reality components in the design system at that stage, so I was asked to build a separate AR design system, which could help future designers, this was a tokenised system and worked seamlessly with their existing design system and brand.
Designing in AR was an exciting challenge and gave me the opportunity to use my 3D design skills to build 3D models in Blender of routers and WiFi extenders and test them in Adobe Aero.
Results
The final app was well received and the WiFi mapping feature was incorporated into the MyOrange app, which is installed on every Orange device, widely used across Europe.
The impact of the app was substantial, with a 34% reduction of calls to the technical support team and a higher overall customer satisfaction with the Orange WiFi service. It was regarded as a highly successful exploration into new technology and nominated for a RedDot award.
