01 Overview
Black & Decker set out to expand its market share by launching a robotic lawn mower, entering the growing smart home and connected garden category.
The hardware innovation required an equally intuitive mobile application for setup, monitoring, and daily control. However, the initial app had been designed with minimal user research and lacked clarity, cohesion, and strong brand alignment.
The opportunity was to redefine the mobile experience so that it felt simple, responsive, and trustworthy, bringing confidence to a product category that was still unfamiliar to many homeowners.
02 The Problem
Robotic lawn mowers function similarly to robotic vacuum cleaners, but introduce additional complexity through outdoor installation, boundary setup, and seasonal scheduling.
Research revealed several challenges:
Users expected immediate control and visibility. Instead, they encountered unclear navigation and buried functionality.
Three recurring user needs emerged:
The core issue was prioritisation. The interface did not reflect the urgency and simplicity users expected from a connected device.
03 My Role
I led the research, interaction design, and prototype validation for the mobile application, working closely with product teams, engineering, and European market stakeholders.
This project required balancing hardware constraints, internationalisation, and evolving brand standards.
04 Process
As robotic lawn care was a new category for me, I began by developing a deep understanding of the product ecosystem. I led focus groups across multiple European markets to explore user expectations, behaviours, and comparisons with existing robotic vacuum and mower apps.
From research, four core functional expectations were identified: a clear hardware status indicator, an accessible activity log, adjustable cutting height, and a weekly mowing schedule.
Wireframes were used not only to visualise solutions but to test prioritisation logic. Multiple flow iterations were reviewed with engineering to validate feasibility and performance constraints.
Through usability testing across multiple European languages, consistent patterns emerged:
Testing across markets confirmed that immediacy and clarity were universal expectations.
The redesigned experience focused on action-first interaction.
The design direction strengthened brand differentiation while maintaining clarity and functional simplicity.
05 Results
The redesigned mobile experience improved usability, clarity, and perceived product quality.
1
Prioritising immediate controls reduced friction for common actions.
2
Clear status visibility and improved hierarchy enhanced trust in the device.
3
The refreshed visual system aligned the app with the premium positioning of the robotic mower.
This project reinforced the importance of prioritisation in connected device design.
In smart hardware ecosystems, clarity and immediacy are more valuable than feature density. By elevating primary actions and simplifying workflows, the experience became aligned with real-world usage patterns rather than system logic.
