A smart home design project
Designing for Human Well-being at home
About the Project.
The quarantine and confinement time gave me a lot of time to think about what a post-pandemic home should be like. Since I was moving to a new apartment during the beginning of the pandemic I figured this was the perfect opportunity to experiment and design a house that could help me find a work-life balance.
Client
Side project of my own
Year
2020
Deliverables
- Prioritized Ideas
- Fully functioning routines
- Working smart home
The challenge
Design my own smart home under a budget: A modest US250 budget, no spare time to learn how to code for IoT and 1 month to deliver after moving in into my new place.
The Design Process
- Household insights
- How Might We problem reframing definition
- Ideation
- Implementation
Design and Implementation Toolkit
The tools, technology and artifacts chosen for the task at hand.
Apartment Blueprint Drawing
Smart Plugs and Appliances
Amazon Echo Show
Alexa App
Design Challenge Framing
Ideation
Understanding the Household problems at home
Before deciding which gadgets to buy and what features the house should have it is important to understand the current household way of living, habits and motivations.
Apartment Blueprint Mapping
I quickly drew an apartment blueprint on a whiteboard. Then I wrote down the main activities and challenges I run into on each room.
Insights Clustering
I categorized the observations into a series of recurring themes and patterns that were important or challenging to address by the household:
- Energy Consumption
- State of mind and mood management
- Routines
- Building with LEGO
- Kitchen Disasters
Reframing the problems: How Might We questions definition
I reframed the challenges detected for each cluster using the How Might We framework in order to lay out a solid foundation for the ideation.
Generating ideas for each How might we question defined
I brainstormed a series of fresh ideas to turn identified problems or challenges into design solutions. I then marked the 10 top most remarkable ideas with a filled heart.
The house boils water and turns the boiler off when done.
The house behaves as a personal assistant, reminding the household about daily events.
The house notifies me and reminds me when something is waiting in the kitchen.
The house recreates the sunlight to help a night person awake with ease.
The house changes the mood of the room, setting up the right color and music scheme to influence creativity, focus and productivity at work.
The house recreates relaxing setups such as rainy days, snowing, day at the beach, etc.
The house recreates a fireplace in the main room to make for a perfect reading environment.
The house lightens the LEGO creations and recreates stories around the LEGO City.
The house unplugs all electronic appliances when they are not in use.
The house removes negative energy before hitting the bed.
Smart Home Implementation
With a clear set of ideas it was time to think the technological stack required to bring the ideas to life:
- 1 x Amazon Echo Show device
- 1 x Amazon Echo Dot device
- 2 x Smart Lamps compatible with Alexa
- 2 x smart hubs to connect and group several electronic appliances
- 4 x smart plugs to connect individual electric appliances
Routine Design
By making use of the Amazon Alexa App I could define a series of routines to take care of the things I am usually unaware of, such as unplugging all energy-consuming appliances when I hit the bed. Routines are also an easy way to automate certain repetitive tasks that I conduct on a daily basis which can be triggered with a simple and natural voice command.
For example, if I need to be more productive at work all I have to say is “Alexa, I need to be productive”. The house immediately turns the lamp on, sets it to the right color hue and plays music designed for people to reach higher levels of focus and productivity.
In order to achieve this level of simplicity all I had to do was to follow 3 simple steps:
01
Translating Ideas into Home Routines
For each idea I created a routine under the Routine option on the Amazon Alexa App.
02
Mapping Natural Requests to Routines
Each routine could be triggered by setting a simple voice command that feels natural when I say it. The routine consists of a series of actions. For example, when I need to focus at work, all I have to do is say “Alexa, I need to focus”. The following actions are triggered:
- Turn the studio lamp on and set the color to green (green color has been proved to help people sustain levels of concentration)
- Provide a friendly relatable response that indicates the right routine has been activated.
- Play a playlist on Spotify that includes soundtracks that help people to focus
03
Grouping and automating routines by room
Smart Devices across the apartment can be grouped to simplify the way those devices are controlled. For example, when the time comes to go to bed, the house can completely turn the entire set of devices by just turning off one room at a time instead of turning individual devices one by one.
The result
By placing both echo devices across the apartment I am able to reach Alexa from any room. All routines can be triggered using simple, short and natural voice commands. It almost feels like I am talking to a person.
Let’s take a look at some of the ideas brought to life and see how they work in real life (I apologize beforehand since the content of the videos is in spanish. I wanted to design a more inclusive home so anyone who comes to visit can also talk to the house).
Waking up with ease
Since I am primarily a night person, waking up early in the morning doesn’t come easy to me. Early in the morning Alexa recreates a miniature sunshine setup right next to my nightstand and plays a delightful playlist that helps me to wake up in a matter of 10 minutes.
Setting the right mood
Whether I am feeling stressed, anxious, or if I need to be productive or I am lacking energy, all I have to do is say the simple magic words and Alexa sets up the right environment to achieve a positive state of mind, using the right combination of color and music.
Avoiding kitchen incidents
When I ask Alexa to boil water in the kitchen, Alexa not only obliges but she also makes sure to turn the boiler off when done. This way I avoided the recurring pattern of leaving water boiling to prepare tea and then completely forgetting about it, leaving as a result evaporated water at the end.
Bringing LEGO stories to life
I am a big LEGO enthusiast so I Alexa helps me to lighten up my LEGO creations and comes up with stories related to the setups.
The perfect reading setup
When I want to read Alexa sets the right light mood and recreates a fireplace that mimics the exact sound of wood burning, making for a peaceful environment, just perfect for a reading session.
Going to bed with ease
Turning my brain off used to be a difficult task when trying to get some sleep. Alexa sets the right combination of color hues in the main room plus a peaceful relaxing tunes that help put my mind at ease and achieve better sleeping.
The impact
9
decrease in the utilities bill during the first month
1.5
hours of good sleep
15
increase in productivity
0
accidents in the kitchen