Homate

Homate

Homate is a personal project I worked on that focuses on the Internet of Things. Drawing on my past experiences of designing for wearables and companion apps for electric consumption, I wanted to challenge myself to think about an ecosystem of home automation.

View the mobile prototype here.

Year: 2016

Overview

This conceptual application acts as a central hub for the IoT devices around one’s home. The experience would centralize the temperature controls, lighting, and create personalized recommendations based on the consumer’s habits. The design challenges I tackled were figuring out how different aspects of home automation would overlap with one another and how different third party products would work together.

To start my research, I did a competitive analysis for products that affected temperature and lighting, and created a matrix of feature sets across these items. Through reading forums and doing online research, I built user personas and defined constraints and restrictions.

I worked on the initial concept and created sketches, wireframes, high-fidelity designs, and any animations to show the interactions.

This conceptual application acts as a central hub for the IoT devices around one’s home. The experience would centralize the temperature controls, lighting, and create personalized recommendations based on the consumer’s habits. The design challenges I tackled were figuring out how different aspects of home automation would overlap with one another and how different third party products would work together.

To start my research, I did a competitive analysis for products that affected temperature and lighting, and created a matrix of feature sets across these items. Through reading forums and doing online research, I built user personas and defined constraints and restrictions.

I worked on the initial concept and created sketches, wireframes, high-fidelity designs, and any animations to show the interactions.

Easy Setup

To construct a seamless out of the box experience, I explored an idea of creating a connection through bluetooth. I also used a pull to refresh pattern, which brought context and continuity. By doing so, consumers were able to update their screen whenever they desired, making it convenient for them.

Make your home more helpful

The dashboard showed a list of devices that were already connected to the consumer’s home. Each room that had a device would have editing capabilities for different attributes such as name and permissions.

A warm welcome

The dashboard also acted as the main platform for controlling the temperature and lights. Consumers could also get coaching tips for their habits. Inspired by the Nest app, I created a familiar experience when controlling the heating and cooling aspects.

Lighten up

I introduced preset options for mood lighting as this provided versatility to our consumers. By taking cues from a physical dimmer, I used a slider UI pattern to control the lights. If a relaxing environment was desired, they could easily dim the lights. However, if they needed to get work done, they had the option to brighten the room as well.

You're the boss

For editing capabilities, I focused on personalization, roles, and permissions. Questions taken into consideration were: would certain users have full control over the temperature and lights? Should there be minimum/maximum temperature restrictions based on user access? By giving permission controls to the consumer, they now had the power to determine who could or could not make changes.

Interactions

I used animations to add delight and subtleness to the setup process. To help reinforce the pull to refresh pattern, I included loading states and a success message when a device was found and connected.

Reflection

After completing this iteration of the design, I ended up not being satisfied with the way I handled most of the information architecture. As I’m looking back at my designs, I want to figure out the best way of separating the lighting and temperature controls. I’d like to explore tabs or another pattern to explicitly call out temperature and lighting.

I’d also want to do discovery work for other IoT devices such as Amazon Alexa. Figuring out ways to implement voice controls could better automate the home experience. Furthermore, I’d like to focus on a person's preferences. For example, when I get home from work, I want the lights on, temperature pre-set to what’s comfortable to me, and a daily digest of my favorite audiobooks queued up and ready to play.

After completing this iteration of the design, I ended up not being satisfied with the way I handled most of the information architecture. As I’m looking back at my designs, I want to figure out the best way of separating the lighting and temperature controls. I’d like to explore tabs or another pattern to explicitly call out temperature and lighting.

I’d also want to do discovery work for other IoT devices such as Amazon Alexa. Figuring out ways to implement voice controls could better automate the home experience. Furthermore, I’d like to focus on a person's preferences. For example, when I get home from work, I want the lights on, temperature pre-set to what’s comfortable to me, and a daily digest of my favorite audiobooks queued up and ready to play.

After completing this iteration of the design, I ended up not being satisfied with the way I handled most of the information architecture. As I’m looking back at my designs, I want to figure out the best way of separating the lighting and temperature controls. I’d like to explore tabs or another pattern to explicitly call out temperature and lighting.

I’d also want to do discovery work for other IoT devices such as Amazon Alexa. Figuring out ways to implement voice controls could better automate the home experience. Furthermore, I’d like to focus on a person's preferences. For example, when I get home from work, I want the lights on, temperature pre-set to what’s comfortable to me, and a daily digest of my favorite audiobooks queued up and ready to play.

After completing this iteration of the design, I ended up not being satisfied with the way I handled most of the information architecture. As I’m looking back at my designs, I want to figure out the best way of separating the lighting and temperature controls. I’d like to explore tabs or another pattern to explicitly call out temperature and lighting.

I’d also want to do discovery work for other IoT devices such as Amazon Alexa. Figuring out ways to implement voice controls could better automate the home experience. Furthermore, I’d like to focus on a person's preferences. For example, when I get home from work, I want the lights on, temperature pre-set to what’s comfortable to me, and a daily digest of my favorite audiobooks queued up and ready to play.

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