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Bedroom 
Automation

Monsoon Course on Human-Computer Interaction

IIT-Bombay June'23

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Brief & Overview 

Bedroom Automation App For Indian Household

"Our Home" is a user-friendly bedroom automation app that puts control in your hands. "Our Home" is a comprehensive system that seamlessly integrates smart devices and technologies, allowing you to effortlessly manage lighting, temperature, and other aspects of your bedroom environment. With "Our Home", you can personalize settings to suit your preferences, enhancing convenience and creating a comfortable atmosphere for better sleep and daily activities. Transform your bedroom into a smart and relaxing sanctuary with "Our Home", and enjoy ultimate control over your environment.

Initial Design Brief

Design a bedroom automation system that can be retrofitted in a typical Indian middle class bedroom.

Design Process

Research & Discover (Week 1)

  • Contextual Inquiry

  • Interpretation

  • Affinity Mapping

Define & Interpret (Week 2)

  • Personas

  • Scenarios

  • User Models

  • User Experience Goals

Ideate & Design (Week 3)

  • Information Architecture

  • UI Design & Detailing

  • Design Evaluation

Primary Research

Contextual Inquiry

To Understand user concerns, difficulties & goals, we interviewed a diverse range of people including people from lower and upper middle class, married couples, individuals living alone, tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy individuals, and those with and without home automation. By including this diverse set of users, we were able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the potential opportunities in the field and capture a wide range of perspectives.

20
users

14

without home automation

7

with
home automation

Focus of the Inquiry

 After setting up the focus of our Inquiry, We decided to keep these questions in mind

  • How much time people generally spend in their bedrooms?

  • How do people generally interact with their bedrooms?

  • What are the tasks or activities they would like to simplify?

  • What are the specific preferences of different users (adults, children, elderly) ?

  • What are the specific challenges / pain-points that people are coping up manually right now but has a scope of automation (lighting, temperatures, entertainment centres)?

  • Is there any cultural aspect/belief that people follow in their bedrooms (furniture placements, placement of bed etc.) ?

Interpretation Of Interviews

We laid out all the notes from the user interviews and identified key problems & insights

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Affinity Mapping

To consolidate our interpretations, we followed a bottom-up approach to affinity mapping. By the end of this, we had more actionable insights to take forward.

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Work Models

We visualised the insights we got from the users for better understanding. 

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The Physical model helps understand the space and their daily activity and concerns around it. Cultural Model highlights the influence on the user, their extent, external constraints and key breakdowns

Top Insights from the Affinity

People like natural air and ventilation however they keep their windows closed because of privacy concerns

Overconsumption of device leading to higher electricity bill is a major problem for

the users

Sometimes people make intentional decision of leaving their devices on for security purposes.

Disturbed sleep can be caused by fluctuating temperature and light.

People generally use only the features that are very upfront

People choose the lighting as per mood preference and based on the activity they do.

People are already manually creating "Jugad" to adjust the lighting to cater their needs

People struggle to dry their clothes during monsoon season

People tend to create adjustments for family

How did the focus evolve based on our findings

How can we streamline the expressed and latent needs through automation? How can we cater the comfort and convenience of diverse users? How can the automation of devices in our bedroom contribute to

energy-saving practices and encourage their adoption? How can we make it light to pocket?

Upto what level of personalisation could be incorporated?

USER

GOALS

  • Comfort and Convenience

  • Security and Privacy

  • Power savings / Energy efficiency

  • Organizing space

  • Personalization

  • Integration of smart devices

CONSTRAINTS

  •  Pricing of existing solutions

  •  Complex conceptual model

  • Reluctant to leave their comfort zone

  • Learning curve of new device and technology 

  • Space limitations

PROBLEMS

  • Privacy

  • Learning new technologies

  • External factors like different sleep patterns and timings

OPPORTUNITY

  • Customizing comfort

  • Optimal environment tailored to users preferences

  • Device / appliances integration with smart app

  • Saves on energy

  • Health and wellness integration

  • Ensure security and safety

User Persona

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We've crafted a brief video aimed at immersing ourselves in the shoes of our users, providing an intimate glimpse into their daily struggles and aspirations. Through this visual narrative, we aim to deepen our understanding of their unique challenges and desires, fostering empathy and insight to better serve their needs.

User Scenario

We've meticulously developed a compelling skit, meticulously crafted to both propose our innovative solution and intricately detail the myriad scenarios our users face. By immersing ourselves in the lived experience of our users, we aim to authentically portray their challenges, aspirations, and everyday routines. Through this immersive narrative, we seek to foster a deeper understanding of our users' needs and desires, paving the way for impactful and empathetic solutions.

INTRODUCTION - 

INTRODUCTION - 

We're now presenting our solution - Sara. Your home assistant.
Sara can be easily installed in the user's home. The user's can choose what all devices they want to connect to Sara. Once she is connected, that's the time for the user to finally gain the upper hand in controlling the convenience and comfort they want in their bedroom by simply using their voice.

The First act of the scenario focuses on the problem the users face followed by the second act where SARA becomes the part of the family and enhances their daily activities by giving the users power of control. 

Information Architecture

With the user needs and usability goals prioritised, we created a detailed information architecture of the app. This gave us better understanding of the structure of our app.

Onboarding the user

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Landing page journey

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Wireframes

After finalising the feature of the app, we went ahead and ideated the wireframes of the app and started drawing rough sketches for the screen design.

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UI Walkthrough of the App

Design Evaluation

Key Questions

  • Can users proficiently navigate & utilise the app’s functionality?

  • Will people use this as an alternate instead of an existing remote which they are already using?

  • How useful is the overall energy consumption information for them or to be mindful about the daily electricity usage?

  • Can users proficiently navigate & utilise the app’s functionality?

  • Will people use this as an alternate instead of an existing remote which they are already using?

  • How useful is the overall energy consumption information for them or to be mindful about the daily electricity usage?

Method

Cognitive walkthrough with Think aloud protocol.

Plan

Conducted user testing with 8 users

Tasks

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1. Follow the onboarding process. How intuitive/ easy to follow is the journey?
2. Identify the different ways in which you can add a device. Does having more than one way helpful?
3. Find windows and explore different modes.
4. Set a fixed time to switch on a mode.
5. Set timer on AC.

Results

positive feedback

1. Users were able to understand the onboarding process and loved the following

  • OTP sign up 

  • Voice enabled feature 

  • They can customise Sara’s name

2. Users we able to to understand the three different ways of adding a device. They liked the automatic detection and scan feature which takes out the manual work.

scope of improvement

1. Users found it difficult to understand the different modes and what it means. The UI was also a little confusing.
2.Though, after just a small hint users were able to figure out the journey but the UI didn’t seem very intuitive.
3.Users found the AC remote screen heavy and took time to understand how it works.

Some more findings

1

Difficulty in tapping the toggle button
The space was too small and users were accidently tapping on the entire widget which was frustrating.

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2

Information on AC remote
Users felt cognitive load as they came to this AC remote screen.
Setting up the timer is complex

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OLDER VERSION

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IMPROVED VERSION

3

There is one common add button to Add Room or adding device
This was confusing for the users to understand

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OLDER VERSION

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IMPROVED VERSION

Reflections

As I conclude this portfolio, I reflect on the transformative journey at IIT Bombay's HCI course. From delving into user-centric methodologies to collaborative projects, each experience has enriched my skills and perspective. Gratitude to all involved for shaping me into a better designer and person. These memories and skills will forever inspire my creative endeavors.

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(Special thanks to our professor Anirudha Joshi, for curating this amazing course. And my teammates Kirti Shankar, Kritika, Tanvi Sharma, Saloni Mekade and our mentor Saloni Shetye)

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