I believe in Home Automation and there is nothing I would like more than to have an all in one app that can link and enable me to automate my home.
Who designed the Google Home App and how has there been no improvements to the user experience to date?
I have my smart alarm, door bells, camera, thermostat, tv, philips hue, smart speakers all linked up.
Here is my direct feedback...The App is suppose to look friendly and not like a developer tool kit. What do I mean by that? It means I just want to be able to see and use the things with as little clicks as possible.
- In the Favourites tab, all my lights are grouped. I need to click into it. Ok, I am then presented with a giant on/off to control all my lights. How often does one do that in real life?
- My lights are grouped by rooms only. Ok, so two clicks for me to see the room my light is in.... but wait, I have bedside lamps and ceiling lights and I don't want to turn them all on at once. I can't create subgroups so now I have to click to expand then turn each light on individually and repeat to turn it off via the app. Expected behaviour is... In the favourites I have my bedroom and then I click bedside table. Or better yet, since its favourites I just click bedside table shortcut (philips hue app can do this).
- Thermostat - In the favourites there is a section called Climate with X Device. As a user, I just want a tile that says the temperature and or humidity with words saying which room. I click in it and it gives me the same functionality as in nest app.
- I can set camera previews in favourites but I am still forced to see a big "cameras" tile at the top... why..?
- The controls for the linked devices are so limited currently that you cannot do any sophisticated automation in the house. The only one I personally wanted was to automatically arm and disarm my alarm during a certain time but my journey ended with a security restriction.
- In the devices page, it literally just lists every device linked which means every sensor for my alarm, speaker, tv, doorbell, thermostat is just listed and catergorised by room. There is nothing here or in the app that makes me think unifying everything makes life easier. I can't even change channel on TV, can't send notifications.
- Not many people need automation to turn on tv and control volume only. Or turn On/Off all their lights in one go. This app looks like it was designed by a developer and in need of some UX design.
In summary, the ability to automate is limited by only having access to overly basic functionality for linked devices or security restrictions. The UI hasn't really been thought through for users to enjoy. If I cannot automate or benefit from using my linked devices all under one app then what is the purpose apart from I am forced to use it because the Nest app is being retired which actually looks and works great.
I am being harsh because I feel user feedback is never really prioritised and that a lot of attention is given in the backend that whilst that is great.... There is no point to having a gold plated backend if users don't want to use it.
