Research

I used comparative research with similar companies using SWOT analysis and user interviews with five people with an age range of 26-60 who have at least one smart device in their home.

Research Findings

To better understand the current smart home ecosystem, I conducted a competitive analysis of four major platforms: Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings. My goal was to evaluate what each platform does well, where they fall short, and how those insights could inform the design of a more seamless and user-friendly experience.

Strengths:

• Cross-Platform Compatibility: All four platforms work with both iOS and Android devices, which makes them accessible to a broad user base.
• Voice Control Integration: Voice commands are a key feature for all platforms, offering hands-free convenience for everyday tasks.
• Device Interoperability: Each ecosystem supports a variety of smart home devices, often from different manufacturers, allowing users to customize their setup based on personal needs and preferences.

Weakness:

• Subscription Pricing: While some features are included for free, others require paid subscriptions. These pricing models are inconsistent and can be a barrier for some users.
• Privacy Concerns: Users have growing concerns about how their data is being collected and used by smart home platforms. The always-on nature of voice assistants adds to the feeling of being monitored.
• Performance Issues: Some users report occasional delays in voice recognition or slow response times when executing commands, which disrupts the overall user experience.

I interviewed five participants who currently use smart devices at home. I wanted to understand how often they interact with these platforms, what they like or dislike about their experiences, and whether they see value in expanding their smart home setups:

• Daily Interaction: All five participants said they interact with at least one smart device every day. Common use cases included turning on lights, adjusting the thermostat, or asking for information via voice assistant.
• Openness to Expansion: Three participants expressed interest in adding more smart devices to their home, especially if setup was simple and the benefits were clear.
• Trust and Simplicity Are Key: Several mentioned they’d only expand their smart home system if they trusted the platform and felt confident that setup and control would be easy—not overwhelming or overly technical.

Project Goals

Understanding the business and user goals, as well as technical considerations, I was able to come up various factors that are needed in the product as well as limitations that could arise. To me, technical considerations was an important one to brainstorm for a smart home app because one misstep could lead the app to disaster.

Define

Currently people who own multiple ecosystems of smart home devices find it tedious to go to multiple apps to control them. This is because devices connected to an ecosystem cannot communicate with the other. As a result, they become overwhelmed on how to control their devices.

Based on research of similar apps and the interview findings, I created a sitemap of the app to showcase all the parts of the app that I think would be important for the user.

The findings from interviews and research, I was able to come up with two personas that visualizes the diverse group of people this product would impact. I focused on the importance of being able to manage devices away from the home and being able to implement many devices without struggle.

Design

I sketched out layouts and digitally created wireframes of the one that I think would have worked the best. I created a simple prototype and used the same participants as the interview in order to gain early design feedback.

My idea was past experiences with smart home apps as well as the research I conducted to create a simple way for users to have access to their devices. I decided on a toggle function for convenient on/off.

When coming up with the brand name, I wanted it to be synonymous with home. I landed on Haven and used a text logo in the MADENZ font for a technological and futuristic feel. I chose a warm color palette of orange and blue for a warm feeling for the user.

Since this was an app, I did not need to do the menu drop down that can be seen on mobile websites. Instead, all the user can traverse the app through the footer icons.

Test

I created a prototype from my high fidelity design in Figma. This prototype was sent out to the same participants as in the interview and first testing. All participants were able to complete the task within 15 minute time frame with no errors.

• Open app from home screen
• Create account
• Add new devices
• Add devices to a room

• 5 out of 5 participants rated Haven as easy to use and 4 out of 5 rated they would use it often
• 5 out of 5 participants said the experience was similar to other smart device apps they used
• 3 out of 5 participants mentioned the toggle button to turn the devices on/off is very convenient
• During the "add devices to a room" task, 1 participant mentioned the icon for groups in the device home was confusing for them.

Based on user testing, there were not significant changes for the design. I add the smart animate between key screens to have the prototype act more like the app.

Conclusion

This project was another opportunity to experience all the steps in the process of both UX and UI as a sole designer. However, as a sole designer with limited experience, it could be challenging at times. Throughout this I was able to grow my design skills more though I feel like I would still need more experience in order to become more confident in those skills. I ended up enjoying the process of the research portion, including conducting interviews and using methods to compare similar companies in order to ideate what would make this product stand out.