In 2020, I joined ADT with the intent of working with a small team to design a new DIY smart home app in partnership with Google called ADT+. The new system included hardware, an app, design system, and integration of Google smart devices into the ADT ecosystem.

The partnership expanded ADT's reach and core capabilities. This was especially true for the saved media experience, which went from 24 hours to 30 days, introducing AI-powered event identification.

As part of this 0 → 1 project, I focused on rapid research, sketches, iterative design, and high impact decision-making to deliver this MVP.

Challenging a business decision can always be tricky. Especially when that challenge is dealing with Google.

Google and ADT proposed users leaving the ADT+ app for the Google app to check their saved media. Best UX practices says this creates a disjointed experience.

To persuade change, I surveryed 1,000 ADT and Google users to reveal a critical "Trust Gap": 61% preferred ADT as stewards of their sensitive data over Google.

Interviewing 10 ADT power users revealed extreme use cases, from bird watchers to those who'd been involved in high-stakes security situations. For the later, I realized my design must be panic proof.

I defined four design mandates:

1. Seconds Count: Eliminate latency and taps to reduce user anxiety.

2. Adaptive Persona: Support "Casual Browsers" & "Emergency Responders."

3. Cognitive Load: Prioritize larger targets & fewer choices for navigation.

4. Contextual Priority: Ensure the most relevant footage is never buried.

Our users had it with traditional date pickers. They were becoming a critical failure in a security crisis. Missed clicks, inability to locate them, and obscuring saved video tiles when expanded.

My intent was to design a mobile "split screen" which wouldn't rely on an overlay and treads saved media history as a fluid, uniterrupted timeline.

How do you test a layout in a critical security crisis? You can't. I empathetically designed for extremes, providing multi-layouts of save video tiles for users fluctuating between two modes: Rapid scanning of faces and objects, and deep investigation of timestamps.

• List vs. Grid Toggle: Instant switching between visual-heavy discovery and metadata-rich details.

• Looping Previews: Eliminated "click-and-wait" fatigue by using short, looping motion previews to verify events without playback.

• Visual Anchors: High-contrast labels (Person, Vehicle, Package) allow users to ignore the noise and find the signal instantly.

To handle 30 days of data, I designed a filter system that provides immediate feedback and clear state changes, essential for high-stress moments.

• Explicit Selection: Individual event chips ensure users act with intent and clarity.

• Animated Feedback: Chips utilize ADT brand colors and motion to reinforce selection.

• Expected Value: The primary action button dynamically updates with the count of matching recordings, reducing guesswork and unnecessary taps.

To keep the surveillance experience distraction-free, I centralized saved media and settings within a streamlined drawer. This architecture ensures that critical device controls and history remain just one tap away without cluttering the primary Live View.

• Strategic Balance: Prioritizes high-speed access & a clean UI.

• One-Tap Navigation: Reduces the distance between real-time monitoring and historical data.

Managing security in intimate spaces requires absolute user control. I integrated clear, compliant privacy toggles to manage the tension between surveillance and home privacy.

• Instant Privacy: A mandated toggle allows users to kill camera feeds and recordings instantly.

• Notification Customization: Users can tailor alerts (People, Animals, Vehicles) to reduce notification fatigue and focus only on relevant security events.

• Ecosystem Balance: Deep-linked settings to the Google Home app maintain consistency across the broader Nest ecosystem.

In critical moments, precision is a matter of trust. I prioritized playback accuracy and situational awareness for 'Emergency Responders'.

• Granular Control: A high-precision scrubbing handle with timestamps to the hundredth of a second provides forensic-level detail.

• Context Switching: A direct link to "Live View" allows users to move seamlessly from reviewing a past incident to monitoring a current situation.

• Balancing Complexity: I transformed technical and legal constraints into design opportunities—using privacy toggles and progressive disclosure to build user reassurance.

• Stakeholder Advocacy: Navigating two distinct organizations (ADT and Google) proved that research-backed evidence is the most effective tool for driving a user-centered strategy.

• Cognitive Load: Thoughtful interaction design—precise feedback and fluid navigation—is essential for helping users make confident decisions under extreme stress.