Google Nest
Wifi Detection

Google wanted a way to visualize the wifi coverage in a space in order to detect areas where coverage is weak and suggest ways to improve it. We helped them build an app that utilizes AR to see real-time coverage changes while walking around an area.

I designed the interface and helped define the flow of the experience while working closely with development as we prototyped and built the app.

In the app, the user walks around their space while an AR path is forming behind them, changing color as wifi coverage varies. Spot checking, labeling a room, and reviewing a scan you just made were also key interactions.

The visualization of the AR path was something we spent a lot of time concepting and prototyping. It had to be partially on-screen to indicate that something was happening behind while also appearing dispersed and ambient like a wifi signal is. We also wanted it to be lively and animated, so we ultimately built a path with lightly bobbing bubbles that floated in mid-air.

In thinking through the interface, a lot of the components held equal importance. We researched and went through many rounds of explorations to come up with the best approach to the interface and its many interactions.

One of the biggest puzzles was how to display coverage changes. We created multiple iterations, designing everything from extremely simple to more complex and user-initiated, and ended up using a dashboard display that when tapped, would open a map view. It simplified what the user should be primarily focused on while having the rest of the information easily accessible.

The final part of the experience is a comprehensive review screen with multiple ways to view the data you just acquired. Similar styling was applied so that the map view during the scan and the review screen corresponded to each other and visually held the same type of information.