This is an intern project done by a team of four interns in a 7-week time frame. In 7 weeks, we successfully built an mobile App and a prototype of an IoT device.

Dates

June 2017 - Aug 2017

Role

Lead Product Designer

Product Strategy

Team

Aaron Tang, UX

David Cao, Software Engineer

Moran Guo, Hardware Engineer

Status quo

Two barriers to smart home adoption are:

1. High cost of smart products

2. Knowledge to retrofit an appliance with technology

We wanted to create an affordable IoT product for homeowners.

The product

Consumer/Smart Home

Market/Vertical

Consumer Purchase

Revenue Model

Direct to Consumer

Sales Model

Households

Target Customers

MARKET RESEARCH

Competitive Analysis

The goal of the Analysis is to create a framework in order to identify key aspects of an industry and clarify its current state, also helps inform the strategy outlined in the Design Brief.

Determine competitive features

Notification

Receive notifications when cycle starts or is complete

Status Monitor

The status of machine will be tracked all the time and displayed on the screen as illustration.

Usage Tracking

Track monthly usage of devices and receive tips on when to run machines to save power

APPROACH

Start with information architecture

APPROACH

Create a bright visual

We chose blue as the theme color of this app, since our app is most relevant to appliances that are associated with water.

APPROACH

Optimizing onboarding experience

• Show the stage users are at in the process on the top of the screen
• Provide a brief overview with imagery illustrations and instructions before entering the pairing process
• Nudge users to proceed by removing "back" option on certain screens

APPROACH

Considering edge cases

We chose blue as the theme color of this app, since our app is most relevant to appliances that are associated with water.

APPROACH

Device Management

The purpose of the device management screen is to give users an overview of the status of all their devices, they can also make further edits such as changing name and color by clicking into each device.

CORE FEATURE

Creating simple device management through iterations

We wanted to create a simple solution so users can easily manage their devices. I came up with a simple way which is to enable switching device on the home screen. In this case the device management screen carries less functions, and also can be accessed from the settings menu.

CORE FEATURE

Enabling customization

When I first stated the product design, it occurred to me that differentiating device might be a problem when users have multiple devices. By providing color options, it helped users to manage mutiple device more easily.

CORE FEATURE

Reminders + Usage Tracking

Users can create reminders in case they forget things such as doing laundry or turn off the dishwasher. They can also keep track of the usage of their appliances with the real-time data, even energy data in the future to help them reduce energy usage.

Animation tells it all

Use animation to illustrate status of the device

Swipe & Switch

Switch device in just one touch

Change colors any time

Change the color of UI and the light on the device

Key Takeaways

Now looking back, I feel very satisfied with what we have done for this product. We have accomplished all the goals that I created, and learned a lot of things when working together.

While working on this project, I worked closely with other designers, developers and engineers to help our project move forward. This experience has also taught me about the importance of problem solving skills. Good design can always solve users’ problems. Therefore, when designing a design solution, we need to think of all possible scenarios, so users don't get lost or confused when things happen.

aarontang.design@gmail.com