Optimizing WiFi performance on Minim-powered networks
Role
Full-Stack Product Design
Tool
Figma
Summary
To optimize WiFi performance across the range of home and office environments we designed a tool to allow users to manage their WiFi channel settings without requiring any knowledge of the underlying networking concepts. For the admins who managed user accounts, we created a complimentary tool with enhanced insights and control.
About Minim
Minim, Inc. delivers intelligent software to protect and improve the WiFi connections we depend on to work, learn, and live. Headquartered in Manchester, N.H., Minim holds the exclusive global license to design and manufacture consumer networking products under the Motorola brand.
Same bad time, same bad channel
Before the Minim and Zoom Telephonics merger, Minim primarily created networking products for small to medium ISPs that serve rural communities. In areas with low population density multi-network interference isn't typically an issue. We provided an interface for ISP admins to manage customer channel settings via the Care Portal but did not provide it to their customers so that admins could maintain centralized control.
Post-merger, with the launch of our Motorola branded consumer products, we noticed an uptick in customer service calls complaining of poor WiFi performance. An investigation revealed that our default WiFi channel settings, which were optimized for speed, didn't perform well in the network congestion-heavy multi-occupancy buildings found in urban environments.
Since the admin role didn’t exist in this new consumer-focused product paradigm, we would need to provide a way for users to intuitively optimize their WiFi channel settings for their environment. The new functionality would also need to continue to provide admins with centralized control.
Taking all of this into account we settled on the following goals:
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Provide an intuitive way for mobile users to customize the WiFi channel settings for their home/office environment
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Users should not need an understanding of WiFi channels to optimize their WiFi performance
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Admins should retain centralized control over users’ networks
Optimizing WiFi performance
One possible solution was to replicate the existing admin-focused channel controls from the Care Portal in the mobile app. However, this didn’t meet our second goal as the current Care Portal implementation requires an understanding of WiFi channels to make effective use of it.
Instead, we decided to build a new tool that would provide an optimal experience for both mobile and Care Portal users. Through ideation, we arrived at the following high-level approach:
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Provide an opportunity for users to optimize their WiFi during the hardware setup process (what we call “onboarding”) so they enjoy maximum performance as soon as possible
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Provide a place where users can later change their optimization settings
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Provide admins insight into user WiFi channel settings, and the ability to override them, via the Care Portal
Once we had a general idea of where we wanted to take the new feature we generated user stories to flesh out the requirements. The user stories were generated from competitor research, customer service feedback, insights from our “product champion” (who served as a stand-in for the user), and ideation by the product team (of which I was a member). I then set out to design the feature to encompass those user stories through an iterative process which included reviews with the product and engineering teams and the product champion.
Mobile onboarding
To optimize the user’s WiFi performance we needed an indication of how many WiFi networks were in their home or office environment. We considered using the wireless capabilities of the router to scan for networks but this would be time-intensive. Minimizing setup time is a high priority for our products.
Instead, we asked users what type of building they live/work in. There is a strong correlation between building type and the amount of networks it is likely to contain. For our power users, who understand WiFi and may have a general idea about the amount of WiFi networks around them, we provided secondary text that gave a loose description of the number of WiFi networks for each environment. For users who find the question confusing, we provided an option to bypass optimization and use the default settings.
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You may have noticed we didn’t mention that reducing interference would also reduce the overall speed of the user’s network. When users purchase a router they expect to get the speeds advertised on the box. Realistically, a user will always get less than the advertised speed due to the nature of the technology. Trying to explain that, as well as the tradeoff between speed and stability, would make the process immensely more complex and likely lead the user to make decisions that weren’t in their best interest. For that reason, we decided not to mention it.
Mobile settings
To provide users with the ability to change their optimization profile after the initial setup, we included an item in the advanced network settings section of the app. A mention in the onboarding screen would clue users into the existence of this setting.
The version of the tool located in settings would allow the user to select between the same three optimization profiles. However, if an admin had configured custom channel settings via the Care Portal, it would show a fourth “Custom settings” option.
If the admin had restricted access to the setting entirely it would notify them as such and provide a link to contact support.
Care Portal
The legacy implementation of the Care Portal channel settings provided a tool for admins to scan for neighboring WiFi networks to produce a graph that they could visually inspect to determine the optimum channel settings for the user’s network. It was a useful and necessary tool for selecting optimal channel settings.
The new Care Portal implementation would therefore combine the optimization profiles of the mobile implementation with the scanning tool of the legacy interface. We considered using the neighboring access scan to automatically choose channel settings, requiring no visual inspection or decision, but in the interest of taking an iterative approach to the design we set that option aside for a possible future revision.
To optimize the experience for admins several additional considerations and features, beyond what was available in the mobile app, would need to be included.
The WiFi optimization profiles were given additional context in the form of the speed/performance tradeoff information that was excluded from the mobile app. Admins understood the relationship between speed and stability and would not be confused by its inclusion. It would in fact be the way they thought about channel settings, which is why it is mentioned first for each profile. The text descriptions for profiles used in the mobile app were also included in the admin interface to allow admins to speak the same language as their users during support calls.
Admins were given the ability to set custom channels and widths (that did not conform to any of the provided profiles) to allow them more fine-grained control over channel settings.
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They were also given a toggle to restrict users from changing their channel settings, which could be set locally on a single account or globally for all users.
Results
Network performance was greatly improved by the launch of optimization profiles with a 34% decrease in support calls citing poor network performance.
Feedback gathered in response to the optimization tool noted power users’ desire for the ability to set custom channels and widths in the mobile app. This would be the next expansion of the tool’s functionality.