Smart Thermostat GUI.
Elevating home technology.
Smart thermostats promise convenience but often require technical savvy to use. How might we create an interface that feels instinctive and modern, within the rigid constraints of a segment display?
Role: UX/UI Designer
Company: ABB
Phase: New Product Development
Responsibilities: User research synthesis, design refinements based on A/B testing, custom segment display design within hardware constraints, gestural interaction design, UI specifications
Awards: Focus Open Silver, 2019; iF Design Award Winner, 2018; Red Dot Design Award Winner, 2018; Good Design Award Winner, 2018
Challenge
Creating a modern, intuitive interface despite being constrained to a simple segment display (when competitors were leveraging full-color screens)
Insight
Tight technical or financial constraints don't need diminish great design. They can create unique opportunities for novelty, such as crafting an old technology into something sophisticated.
Outcome
ABB Free@home: A multi-award-winning thermostat that elevates climate control from a chore to an invisible comfort through intuitive, learning interfaces.
User Research
I entered the project right around the time mockups were being presented to users for A/B testing.
Research Synthesis & Insights
My role was to help synthesize the research and make sure we were designing to user needs and preferences. Research efforts were presented to client stakeholders and we managed to gain buy-in for the user-preferred design directions.
GUI Challenge Questions
How can we elevate an old-school segment display to look and feel more modern?
How can we fit all of our functionality into a small and rigid real estate?
What technical tradeoffs need to be made?
An Instinctual Heat Workflow
Careful attention was paid to gestural interactions, time delays, and visual information and feedback so that any user could find the use instinctual, regardless of age or abilities.
Key Screens
Default
Passive Cooling
Passive
Active Cooling
Settings
Bootup
Specifying the UX and UI
I was responsible for packaging up the experience and UI design into a tool that could be used for multiple stakeholders, from marketing to engineering. The solution was a map encompassing user flows, screen states, iconography, touch targets, and key interactions details (including gesture, spacial constraints, timing, etc), all in one.
A Smart, Modern Thermostat for any Environment
While initially planned for commercial use (such as hotel environments), the friendly look and feel of the thermostat makes it just as fitting for a home environment, opening up another market.
The Outcome
ABB Free@home earned four international design awards through careful design decisions informed by user testing.
By embracing limitations rather than fighting them, we elevated a "retro" segment display into something that felt contemporary and intuitive. Gestural workflows and thoughtful visual feedback made climate control instinctive across all age groups and abilities.
“Essentially, the device consists of nothing but an interface, the design of which is so crystal clear that even very young or elderly people intuitively know how to use it – thanks in no small part to the crisp icons and high contrast ratio of the capacitive display. The accompanying app is based on the same underlying idea of simplicity and directness.”
—Focus Open 2019 Jury Panel