Design and development of an IoT audio product line
How close collaboration and IoT experience sparked success
The Project
The American loudspeaker pioneer, Klipsch Audio Technologies, enlisted the help of Outside Source to design and develop a mobile app that empowered their customers to connect and configure their home audio products.
They wanted a single application that delivered a consistent user experience and made it possible to easily onboard and control not just multiple products, but multiple product types (earbuds, speakers and soundbars).
The Challenge
The Klipsch Connect app project offered two unique challenges for our development team.
First, the project required close collaboration with multiple teams: business stakeholders, hardware engineers and third party audio platform integrators. To ensure success, these teams needed to be closely coordinated, so requirements and expectations were clear as development work was completed in a parallel timeframe.
Second, the requirement to onboard and connect multiple product types (often with varying chip sets) presented both technical and usability challenges.
How We Did It
Close collaboration became a crucial part of this project. Coordinating parallel work streams requires frequent exchanges and clear requirements. We met with teams weekly and collaborated over Slack channels. Klipsch relied on our expertise in IoT and connected products to troubleshoot potential firmware issues and communicate those to the hardware teams. In doing so, we were able to head off issues early in development that could cause a downgrade of the customer experience down the road. Similarly, we helped test any third party API to ensure it aligned with the requirements defined by business stakeholders.
Also, we used a “templated” architectural approach to simplify development and streamline onboarding of new products. Screens inside the app would dynamically change based on the type of product that was being viewed. This way, code could be re-used as products were added, and a lot of the behavior and content could be controlled by updating configurations.
This provided three benefits for our client: it provided cost savings as more products were onboarded, it created a consistent user experience across products, and it made the app itself efficient and lightweight.
The Result
Today, the app allows customers to connect to their True Wireless earbuds, speakers and Cinema soundbars.
The app features vary by product, but include all of the following:
Transparency Mode & Level
EQ Preset Listening Modes
Custom EQ Adjustments
Battery Level and status
Quickstart Guides and Manuals
How-To Videos
FAQ’s
Product Feature Updates
Product Registration
Warranty Registration
Outside Source was right for this project because…
Our focus and experience with IoT was a value add for a company just establishing its digital product footprint
Building complex, custom software that requires senior-level expertise is our sweet spot
Our UX/UI talent is ideal for companies that want their app experiences to stand out from their competitors
Need help connecting your product?
IoT app development is our sole focus.