Find Wi-Fi
OVERVIEW
I led design for Find Wi-Fi from May 2021 to December 2022, in which I shipped several feature releases and product improvements.
Find Wi-Fi aims to make finding and connecting to fast, reliable Wi-Fi effortlessly, from anywhere in the world.
It's currently available globally to users on Facebook for Android, iOS and Facebook Lite. It also supportsmobile web users who access Facebook via their phone's web browser.
Between May 2021 and February 2022 we grew the product from less than 5 to 29 million daily active users worldwide!
Dates: Consistent Product Iteration • May 2021 - Dec 2022
Company: Meta
Role: Product Design Lead
Platforms: Facebook Android, iOS, Lite & mobile web.
Team: Product Design, Content Design, Engineering, Data Science, UX Research and Product Management.
Problem space
Data is expensive, and reliable Wi-Fi is difficult to find
The demand for fast, free and reliable Wi-Fi access in emerging markets is still largely unmet, forcing mobile users to eat into their limited data allowances, according to users interviewed in several markets.
Consumers around the world have difficulty connecting to reliable
and fast Wi-Fi.
In some countries, data plans are expensive in comparison to earnings,
and often consumers will seek out Wi-Fi to offset the costs of data.
FIND WI-FI
How it works
Find and connect to fast Wi-Fi anywhere in the world
Located in the settings of your Facebook app, browse a selection of cafe's, shops, and other establishments.
FEATURE
Offline Wi-Fi Lists
The Find Wi-Fi product historically required internet connectivity to search for available Wi-Fi.
I believed we could make the product even more relevant to people who have little to no connectivity by allowing them to save offline Wi-Fi lists.
Now, people who aren't connected to Wi-Fi or Cellular can have more access to find connectivity with less barriers.
FEATURE
Filtering Wi-Fi
When users can filter their results they find what they're looking for faster.
I worked with data science, engineering and content design to create an effective Wi-Fi hotspot filtering mechanism for users.
We used data driven research to pin-point exactly which filtering tools would be most helpful for users, including the options of categories for businesses, what's open now and only showing the fastest speeds.
INTEGRATION
Cloud Gaming
Having fast and reliable connectivity is critical to ensure users have a high quality gaming experience.
Users need both high bandwidth and low latency connectivity in order to user the product effectivley.
Our team worked on multiple tools to help people troubleshoot and improve their connectivity problems. I collaborating with designers and engineers on the Cloud Gaming team to understand how we could integrate with their surface.
It was a perfect opportunity to experiment and help gamers improve their experience on the Facebook gaming platform when experiencing buffering and slow play time.
Sometimes when I play a game on Facebook it freezes or I experience lag.
I wish I knew how to improve it.
FUTURE FACING
Expanding beyond Find Wi-Fi
When I first joined the Connectivity org, my team focussed just on Find Wi-Fi.
Since then, we expanded the reach of the surface into other areas to help consumers understand their connectivity and improve it.
Find Wi-Fi became one of two main surfaces inside
of Wi-Fi & Cellular Performance.
