Xfinity WiFi Hotspots
Timeframe: 9 months
Role: UX/UI design, research collab, prototyping, eng hand-off
Impact: 4x the number of monthly active users on the map in the Xfinity app vs. in the Hotspots app, sunset of the Hotspots app
While Comcast keeps customers connected inside their homes, we wanted to keep customers connected while they’re outside their homes as well. I led the effort in the on-the-go strategy that focuses on Xfinity hotspots. This was done in concert with our app consolidation effort where we’re combining multiple Xfinity apps into one Xfinity app. This was a multi-phased project with many layers: captive portal, Xfinity app, profile download, rebranding, and sunsetting the current Xfinity WiFi Hotspots app. This is my favorite project to date because it involved a lot of technical understanding, cross-team collaboration, and designing within many technical constraints.
Phase 1: Integrating Hotspots into the Xfinity app
In the first phase of this project, we wanted to make Hotspots feel like an integrated part of the Xfinity experience. Since hotspots are all about connecting to WiFi, we found its home in the Connect tab of the Xfinity app. The map allows users to find hotspots near them after they’ve enabled their location services.
For MVP, we are showing users:
Addresses of nearby hotspots
A helpful message on how to connect
Search functionality to find hotspots near a specified location
We also want to bring awareness to this new feature in the app through:
Product announcement card that pops up when users return to the app
Overview card
Since launching Xfinity WiFi Hotspots in the Xfinity app, we have seen 4x the number of monthly active users on the map. There are an average of 215k monthly active users on the new map compared to the 50k users on the old Hotspots app.
Phase 2: Security Profile download flow
A security profile is a certificate that allows Xfinity users to automatically connect to secure hotspots when they are within range. The connection is encrypted and secure compared to public hotspots. Currently, this profile is available to download from the existing Hotspots app and from the captive portal experience that launches when users connect to an Xfinity hotspot.
Discovery research on the existing profile download flow in the Xfinity WiFi Hotspots app
We tested the existing flow shown below in đź”— research to see if the current flow for downloading and installing the Security Profile was intuitive to users; it was not. It was not clear to users that they had to download and install the profile. Users had to navigate from the app to a webpage that gave them very little instruction and information about the profile. From there, they had to go into their phone settings on their own to finish installing the profile without any instructions. The OS prompts were not useful either as they were not controlled by Xfinity, they were iOS defaults.
Note: Android users automatically installed the profile once they downloaded and opened the Hotspots app.
Existing Security Profile download and install flow on Hotspots app
Proposed new profile download flow
We aimed to make the flow much simpler.
In the next phase of the Hotspots integration project, we wanted to build out the Passpoint technology that allows users to auto-connect and puts this security profile download flow right in the Xfinity app. We wanted to reduce the number of steps required so that the profile will download and install with just one click.
Proposed new flow
I designed a flow below that aims to simplify this process and our UX research team ran a moderated study to assess comprehension and messaging of the design concepts on UserTesting. We also A/B tested the value prop of the security profile — auto-connect vs. secure connect.
Here were the research questions:
Do participants understand what the auto-connect feature is and does?
How intuitive is the profile installation?
Is it useful for them?
Our UX research team found that auto-connecting was a bigger value prop to users than securely connecting. While the profile installation flow was shorter than participants expected, it did not provide the information they were looking for. Participants were only able to gain a high-level understanding of the auto-connect feature: that it would would allow them to automatically connect to hotspots when they are not within a known network. However, they were not able to understand how it works or what they need to do to use it.
From the research feedback, I decided to add more helpful links to the flow so users can go to help and support to learn more about what these security profiles are. I also decided to create Overview card to promote awareness about the profiles right when users went to the app. After users downloaded the profile, the Overview card can direct them to the hotspots map. I updated the “How to connect” help card on the map to open up an informational modal telling users how they can connect to the hotspots.
Future work
On the Hotspots Map, I want to include information about the type of hotspot shown (restaurant, park, etc.) because different public locations may have different opening times. It would also be nice to indicate on the map how far the hotspot is from the user’s current location.
I also want to include a home for Hotspots in the Connect tab, since displaying usage will reinforce the value of Hotspots to customers. We have been doing research to see what pieces of information people want to see regarding hotspots usage.
This version is considered MVP since users can only connect manually without the profile right now until Q2 of 2022. I plan to have “How to connect” open up a partial sheet modal where users have the option to download the profile.