Simply safe — designing the Safedome dashboard

Safedome is complicated. Very complicated. There is a lot going on under the hood. It was a challenge to refine all the information Safedome can communicate into an interface that is easy to read and digest when someone may be in a state of trepidation and need practical and speedy assistance.

SIMPLE IS COMPLICATED

Therefore it’s important for Safedome to be simple and intuitive to use. Once we started factoring in all the information we need to communicate to the user it can quickly become a daunting, impenetrable experience. We spent a long time adding everything we wanted to the dashboard, then we’d evaluate each element, measuring their importance and placing them on a scale of whether it needs to be included or removed. After several late nights with double helpings of spotted dick washed down with lashings of ginger beer we eventually boiled the design down to a very simple, yet powerful, unified hub system. This hub provides an ‘at-a-glance’ dashboard where someone can instantly discover their status.

CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO AWESOMENESS

We didn’t give preference to one facet over another. They all carry equal weight. If a compromise occurs in one facet, that triggers an alert within Safedome’s main dashboard and allows our users to deal with it quickly and efficiently. If something does go wrong (which we sincerely hope it doesn’t, but if it does you’ll be glad you have Safedome!) it’s important to keep our main Safedome dashboard clean and clutter free. This gives our users laser focus to be able to deal with any problem that Safedome flags in a timely and efficient manner with the minimum of fuss.

EXCUSE ME, ARE YOU AWARE YOUR HEAD IS ON FIRE?

We were equally careful in how the app would communicate, we have to be alerting without being alarming (there is a difference!). We didn’t want to unduly scare people using our app but at the same time we have to make sure they take the appropriate action to make everything right again.

GET OUT THE WAY…

We needed to make sure that if someone is possibly panicking and agitated they can access the information they need to without anything being obstructive or being overwhelmed by redundant material. We essentially wanted the interface to get out of the way. If someone has lost their wallet they do not want to have to navigate a complex series of screens before they can get through to someone who can help them. It was a challenging exercise because there is a lot of information to convey but we have to make sure the right information is available at the right time. There is a fine line between simple and easy to use, and bland and not informal enough.

We think we’ve nailed it but go ahead and check out the previews here and here and let us know what you think. We’re always keen to hear feedback and we believe in continuous improvement.

By Mat Rutherford
Lead UX Designer | Interaction and Interface Design | Team Leader

Originally published Novemeber 2, 2015 on the Maxwell Forest Draw & Code blog.