Smart Security
Sector Alarm, one of Europe’s leading safety providers, turned to DK&A in order to strengthen its market position and to rethink how state-of-the-art security should be experienced by homeowners. Through customer research and desktop study, DK&A shaped the new concept and created a new design language which formed a solid basis for creating the first digital touch-points.
Sector Alarm has a long history of providing high-quality alarm systems for homeowners and businesses in the Nordics and has rightfully earned its status as a household brand and the trust of hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers. With the acquisition through KKR the company started to expand into new markets in southern Europe and simultaneously renew a well-established product portfolio.
SAS — The Smart Alarm System — was developed to bring an all-new hardware lineup with many exciting updates and improvements and constitutes the company’s expansion into the Smart Home territory.
With many new devices, sensors, and services comes a lot of added complexity in setup, management, and daily use. Sector Alarm was looking to design an all-new mobile platform with a vastly expanded scope compared to prior versions. Traditionally a hardware and service provider, the company was looking for an experienced partner in digital product development to develop and validate a visionary concept and deliver it to the market.
The Solution:
DK&A was entrusted with the execution of the concept design phase and was able to convince Sector Alarm early through an innovative and highly scalable approach. Following DK&A’s well established “Validation Sprint” process, the team was able to design and prototype an app in close collaboration with the customer’s experts and put it through the paces with real users twice over the course of 2 months.
“Home security is simultaneously a deeply personal, emotional subject and as ‘matter-of-fact’ as it gets. Our team had to solve the challenge of presenting matters of life and death on a channel shaped by breezy entertainment and simple, one-touch interactions. For a company for whom reputation and trust are everything, mind you. It’s a tough line to walk, but I think we did alright.”— Florian Plank (Chief Creative Officer at DK&A)
The result convinced customers and internal stakeholders alike. The collaboration was extended to cover not only product design and user research but also mobile engineering for Android and iOS and UX copywriting.
The Result:
Over the course of 12 months, the team was able to deliver a very well tested initial version of the new mobile app to the app stores, establish design-centric collaboration processes with Sector Alarm’s product owners, and develop a comprehensive Design System along the way.
In early 2022 Sector Alarm announced that they had won a Red Dot Design Award for their Smart Alarm System. The application was submitted jointly with DK&A and Sector Alarm’s hardware partner EGGS Design.
The Red Dot jury justified their decision: “The Smart Alarm System’s interactive components, consisting of a portable voice unit, keypad, mobile app, remote control and key tags, are designed to provide safety, security and convenience to its users. Its cohesive visual identity across physical and digital products mirror Sector Alarm's focus on creating peace of mind for the user. Both app and control panel are designed to provide crucial information at a glance. The physical products have a clean design to blend with the interior and are easy to mount.”
Image credit: Johan Holmquist
