Case Study — Smart Home

6 min readOct 8, 2021

Smart home is an app designed to help home owners manage all their smart home devices and receive information about their home remotely.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Key deliverables: User research, Wireframes, Hi-fi Prototype

Duration: September 2021

The problem: Many working professionals tend to spend most times of the day out of the comfort of their home, making it increasingly important for them to be able to have access to what’s going on in their apartment especially with the surge in insecurity level.

Primary objective: To create an app that gives homeowners the ability to get information about their home, via IoT devices, from a remote location.

Business opportunities: Apart from it providing control, saves time and money of hiring a home care taker; it provides new opportunities for companies in the security space especially in Africa where it is still in the infant stage.

BACKGROUND

The constant need for change in the technical world progressed from smartphones to home devices, this lead to need for automation than conventional switches. Smart home is an app designed to help home owners manage all their smart home devices and receive information about their home remotely.

IoT devices are basically smart devices which have support for internet connectivity and are able to interact with the other devices over the internet and grant remote access to a user for managing the device as per their need.

HYPOTHESIS

An app that allows homeowners the ability to get information about their house, via IoT devices from anywhere will provide comfort, security and convenience.

UNDERSTANDING THE USER
Goals | Survey | Interview | Pain points | Problem statement

RESEARCH: GOALS

How do people currently control their IoT devices?
What tools and apps are successful in providing homeowners with information about their homes?

RESEARCH: SURVEY

During the foundational research, I sent out a survey to understand the demographic of users who currently use IoT devices, how they control them and also non-smart home app users to understand the kind of IoT device(s) they would like to own and how they would control them. I surveyed about 86 people, the survey questioned users about their home ownership situation, how many IoT devices do they own, how they currently control these devices and the current challenges.

RESEARCH: INSIGHT

Survey results revealed that majority of the respondents identify as male, are home owners who own at least one smart home devices. Majority of the participants that are non-smart home device owners responded that they would like to get one due to ease of stress and sense of security.

RESEARCH: INTERVIEW

I interviewed 2 smart home device owner and 2 non-smart device owners/users to obtain in-depth insights on the key aspects of the design challenge/prompt. Multiple questions across 4 sections were asked to better empathise with the users.

Some interview questions asked include:

Tell me about yourself
What comes to mind when you hear the words “IoT device”?
What factor do/would you take into consideration when considering installing a smart home app?
When you last used your IoT devices, how did it make you feel?
What do you find most challenging about managing your devices?

RESEARCH: PAIN POINTS

The survey and interview gave insights on some of the user’s current pain point.

Complexity: Some of the available smart home app are complex and not user friendly for users that have issues using gadgets. Some apps cannot control or manage multiple devices
Waste Management: They need to be able to track resources n consumption in the house
Notification: Customizing notifications depending on their urgency and value
Multi-user: Allow multiple users to use the app for multi-home owners or room mates

PERSONA & PROBLEM STATEMENT

Mike is a Data analyst who needs a stress-free means of keeping track of his home and resources from anywhere due to the nature of his job.

USER STORIES

User stories from the perspective of the user based on their needs and goals.

As an avid traveller, I want to be able to get relevant information about my home, so that I can focus on other things.
As a mother, I want to be able to create scenes, so that I can automate repetitive tasks when I’m away.
As a landlord with tenants, I want to be add multiple users, so that they can also get information about their apartment.
As a new low-income earner, I want to be able to keep track of the energy consumption in my home, so that I can minimize cost.
As a new home owner, I want to be able to see all the smart devices in my home, so that I can keep track of them.
As a potential user, I want to be able to use different brands of devices, so that I am not restricted to one brand.