App that unlocks doors case study

The project

Jamf already had an application that enabled users to unlock their Mac with their phone. They wanted to add the ability for users to unlock physical doors with their phones—no more forgetting employee badges at home.

This project required new content to walk users through setting up their digital key and presented an opportunity to improve existing content. Challenges included:

• The app would be available for Jamf employees only initially, but the content needed to work well for other companies and potential use cases in the future.

• The team wasn’t sure if they should rename the application and what they should call the key/pass/badge. The app required integrating with Apple Wallet and door security hardware, so there was a lot of jargon involved.

• Apple Wallet has some screens that are unchangeable and would be part of the user flow.

Research

I started by researching the users, their pain points and challenges, competitive research, and existing patterns. I learned the following:

• Users of existing functionality included employees from thousands of companies. Users of the new functionality included Jamf employees for now, and potentially employees of other companies in the future.

• Other apps that used Apple Wallet followed patterns to organize their content (information architecture).

• Product and feature naming also followed patterns, and Apple just released some guidance.

• The app’s users responded to clear directions that made setup quicker.

Design and iteration

I recommended new feature names based on Apple’s recommendations and market research and came to a decision with the Product Manager. I added additional content for the new functionality in Figma and improved the directions for the existing app content, making the app easier to pair with Macs.

After developers implemented the content, we tested the app at a Jamf building. I asked users for feedback and presented minor content updates to the product team for prioritization.

I also updated the end-user documentation.

Results

The existing content I updated for unlocking Macs helped users at thousands of companies pair the app with their Macs easier and faster.

The new functionality for unlocking doors fully replaced employee badges for Jamf employees at all 18 global offices! The product team is collecting additional user feedback before expanding access to external users.

Here’s a video Jamf created to share the new app with employees: