Introduction

In order to use parental control app OurPact, devices must be paired using a desktop application. There were many problems with the legacy application (OurPact Utility) that parents were facing while onboarding.

My role

I defined the entire flow of a new desktop app (OurPact Connect) through collaboration with engineers to create a more streamlined and automated process for pairing child devices to parent OurPact accounts.

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The pain points

  • After iOS devices reboot in the pairing process, an MDM profile and OurPact Jr. (the child companion app) must be installed by the parent.

  • Users were spending an average of over 4 minutes on the MDM pairing screen for iOS devices and overlooked the OurPact Jr. installation.

  • Newer Android OS versions impacted functionality of OurPact’s app blocking, location reporting and screenshot taking features on child devices.

  • Inconsistent pairing instructions for child Android and iOS devices caused confusion.

  • OurPact Utility setup was only required for iOS devices using Premium features, but the setup provided functionality benefits for free users.

The process

 
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Problem

The instructions need to make sense regardless of where the parent comes from: the parent app, child app, or through OurPact Connect.

Pairing requires taking action on the child’s device in order for the application to be able to communicate with these devices.

For child Android devices, this entails enabling USB debugging which can be a challenge to those not so tech savvy.

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Solution

All signs point to OurPact Connect!

Since OurPact Connect is always required, the prompts in the parent and child apps all direct users to use the app to pair.

This simplified the instructions provided those platforms, and keeps the detailed device-specific steps within OurPact Connect so it’s there when it’s relevant to them in the pairing process.

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Testing

We had initially provided a shortcut from OurPact Jr. to the appropriate pages in Settings to enable Developer Options on Androids, but testing discovered that these buttons didn’t land on the correct pages for certain Android OS versions, which made things more confusing.

We decided to remove the shortcut and provide manual steps instead, so that we could account for all OS versions.

Android devices

  • The MVP

    The steps for enabling USB Debugging (a setting required for pairing the device) vary across different Android device types and software versions. Research was done to try and cover all of the edge cases since OurPact’s user base has a wide range of child Android devices.

    More detailed device-specific help information is found when clicking the “Need more help?” link at the bottom of the page.

  • The product today

    Since Developer Options need to be enabled before USB Debugging can be enabled, the steps for enabling those settings were separated. The supporting GIF was edited to more clearly demonstrate which step in the instructions is being displayed.

    Device-specific help information was broken up and added to each step to target the areas users have trouble with.

Time spent on MDM pairing on iOS devices was reduced by 50% with the introduction of OurPact Connect.

 

iOS devices

 
 

The MVP

Prior to OurPact Connect, after the device reboots in the desktop application, users had to manually go to a URL on the child’s device to follow cumbersome pairing instructions (screenshot shown at the top of this page).

For the MVP of OurPact Connect, we were able to send the MDM profile to the device and provide guided instructions for installing it after the device reboot. OurPact Connect is able to recognize when a step has been completed and will automatically progress the user to the next step.

The product today

Engineers found a way to automatically install the MDM profile without the user needing to follow any steps themselves on the device (outside of unlocking it when prompted).

With the automatic install of the MDM profile, we were able to replace the MDM pairing screen steps with the steps for the entire pairing process, including the device reboot. This allowed us to trim 4 screens from the whole pair flow for iOS parents (see below). This is now the only screen displayed after selecting which child to pair the device to.

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