preamble

This is a proposal for refactoring the Ring app user interface. The current UI requires more taps and uses more levels and sublevels than necessary to get things done. That wastes time. Also, the organization has become a bit helter-skelter.

This proposal is based on the iOS Ring app version 5.73.0 running on an iPhone 15 Pro looking (mostly) at the settings for a Spotlight Cam Pro.

General

Ring devices support a lot of settings. That's a good thing but brings complexity. It's time to add a settings search feature for finding things. (Or, maybe, this proposed refactoring makes that unnecessary.)

When moving through the event history, each video provides navigation buttons for moving to the previous and next events. Unfortunately, that navigation is missing when an event's video is missing. That navigation should be present every time.

Often, one event begets a related event. It would be nice to be able to delete an event by swiping from the event list.

Battery levels are sometimes called Battery Level 1 and sometimes Battery 1 Level. Consistent naming should be used. The latter is better (because we're numbering batteries, not levels).

Allow notification snoozing by area (as some of us have a lot of cameras).

Set Bird's Eye Zones with an image from the camera (as this would be consistent with motion zones and satellite views are useless for new construction).

Often, a setting leads to a next page where only one setting is included. In such instances, the setting itself should be provided on its previous page (to save two taps and response time lags). For example, General Settings > Volume Settings (where grammar is incorrect as there is only one setting).

Saving settings changes is inconsistent: sometimes requiring an explicit Save (e.g., device name), sometimes auto-saving (e.g., Light Settings > Motion-Activated Lights), and sometimes requiring use of an X (!) (e.g., editing privacy zones). Consistency is nirvana.

Speaking of saving changes, a pop-up is provided indicating that changes have been saved. Nuke that. It's expected and wastes time. Give us a pop-up if changes are NOT saved. Let the successful return to a previous page (or whatever) imply success.

Dashboard

A recent change to the Dashboard replaced the gear menu with a 3-dot menu. It presents a pop-up after tapping it. This is worse than useless. The same options offered by the pop-up are available on the device's settings page. So, before the UI change, if I wanted one of those options I could already get them in one tap. But, if I want other settings or information about my device I now have to waste a tap (and response time) to get to the device settings page.

The device settings page is still just one tap away from the Devices list.

We now have more inconsistency and less efficiency.

Device Page

Add the product name under the device name. That obviates the need to provide a way to see it elsewhere.

Add a 30-minute snooze button under the device image. Or make it a 10-minute snooze that accumulates snooze time with each tap.

My Spotlight Cam Pro has 13 buttons for accessing its settings, etc. It seems reasonable to get it down to eight, the number of buttons that fit without scrolling (at least on my iPhone 15 Pro) with one spot to spare.

Button	Items	Notes
Events	[list of events]	formerly Event History
Device	device name location light group power mode volume battery 1 level battery 2 level solar status shares health report linked devices light schedules audio streaming and recording reboot safety and compliance remove device report device as stolen	items taken from several current sections linked devices should be a single list including chimes
Notifications	snooze rich notifications priority alerts alert tones smart alerts troubleshooting	items taken from several current sections currently Troubleshoot Notifications
Motion	motion zones Bird's Eye zones sensitivity schedules frequency	Set Up Zones and Edit Zones purposely retired
Video	HDR color night vision tap camera preview for live view recording length snapshots privacy zones	items taken from several current sections
Network	status network name signal strength change network last health check MAC address Ring system status	trimmed from Device Health which does not survive
Modes	same as now
Accessories	same as now +Edge

Summation

The rest of the app could use a review, too. Here, we address (what I imagine to be) the most oft-used components.

These proposed changes:

• increase UI consistency

• enhance setting "findability"

• increase user efficiency

• reduce user frustration

Thanks for listening.