Electrolux Premium UX Project
Company: Electrolux
Team members: Kristi Cooke, Maggie Garratt
Role: UX Researcher and Designer
Timeline: 6 months
Responsibilities:
Designing respective UX and UI patterns for Frigidaire and Electrolux brands.
Designing the user flow to account for products with over 30 unique screens each
Writing testing scripts, creating testing prototypes, and analyzing results for over 30 live user feedback sessions across 2 iteration phases
Communicating final designs to development team to ensure UI is properly displayed and functioning in final physical appliance.
Objective
Create an adaptable touchscreen interface to be used in 13 luxury kitchen appliances, in the Electrolux and Frigidaire brands.
The creation of this new line of products was a $300MM project.
Result
Interfaces successfully designed, implemented, and available for sale on planned timeline
Final product received honorable mention at CES 2019
Process
Testing Interface Updates
When I joined the Electrolux UX team in January 2019 the Premium UX Project had recently created the initial screen pattern. I joined and began leading the product’s first testing efforts.
This this round of testing our team was focused on collecting user feedback on four primary changes made to the interface of the microwave/oven combo.
These changes included:
Reformatting the home screens
The removal of the timer tab from the main navigation
The increase in contrast in the background and buttons used in the color scheme
Removing the clock function from the interface to make more room for other features
The top row of screens are samples of the original User Interface and the bottom row shows the corresponding updated screens.
Testing Updates
Overall, this round of testing provided strong evidence that the changes made since the first round simplified the functions provided by the interface and clarified its capabilities.
The primary update made to the interface was to eliminate the “Cook With Guidance” function as users could not easily assume what this function did and did not find it useful. The “Preset Modes” option was a similar function that was better received by participants so we decided to keep that function instead and include elements of the eliminated function.
Electrolux to Frigidaire Reskin
To best suit the Frigidaire consumer, the final interface for was reimagined by altering the colors, layout, functions, language.
Electrolux brand: Luxury, muted, artisan
Frigidaire brand: Family oriented, bright, relatable
Frigidaire User Interface Options
We created four potential color schemes for the rebranded Frigidaire interface.
Guerilla Testing User Interface Options
To choose an initial visual direction, we surveyed colleagues to gather feedback on which design was the most readable, and understandable and which design they saw aligning with the Frigidaire consumer. We asked participants to indicate if they themselves identify more with the Frigidaire or Electrolux consumer to gain some understanding potential customer preferences.
The results gave an indication that the Frigidaire consumers preferred the light schemes for readability and fit their aesthetic preference as well.
Frigidaire Interface Final Designs
User Flow Documentation
To clearly communicate the user flow of the interface to developers, I created a taxonomy to indicate all needed screens, as well as a key to indicate interactions, core functions, required user decisions, optional user decisions.
Final Product
The final interface was successfully incorporated into several Electrolux and Frigidaire products and was launched in 2020, on of which can be found and purchased here.
