Smart Doorbell for Seniors: Comparative Usability Testing

The project evaluated an in-development smart doorbell and app designed for senior users, and benchmarked it against two leading competitor doorbell products previously tested with the same protocol. Standardized instruments measured pragmatic quality, hedonic quality and perceived usability. The new product outperformed competitors on usability, while specific issues were found in account creation, device pairing and user invitation flows

The study used a repeatable comparative protocol applied consistently across both test rounds.

• Recruited seniors aged 65 to 75, smartphone owners living in houses, with no prior smart home experience.
• Assessed the end-to-end setup journey: account creation, terms of service, Wi-Fi entry, QR code pairing and device onboarding.
• Evaluated core call flows: expected call behavior, quick answer, phone wake-up and notification preferences.
• Observed in-app guidance needs during the user invitation process.
• Measured results with the short User Experience Questionnaire for pragmatic and hedonic quality, benchmarked against a large reference data set.
• Measured perceived usability with the System Usability Scale and graded scores against established adjective ratings.
• Mapped observations into pain and gain point user journeys and compared results across all three products on equal terms.

The new product scored clearly higher than both competitor products on the usability scale, reaching a good rating, and rated positively on pragmatic quality in the benchmark comparison.

• Competitor setups suffered from confusing QR code instructions, vague onboarding and long loading screens that worried users.
• Setup pain points in the new product included hidden buttons, unclear verification code retrieval and accidental wizard exits.
• The user invitation flow was the weakest area, with unclear post-action instructions and inconsistent translation.
• The ringing call flow, camera preview and siren feature were received positively, and users found the product reassuring.