Lutron Smart Home App
Role
Lead UX Designer, 7 Months
Team
Developer, Architects
Product Manager, Senior Management
UX Researcher, Visual Designer
Tool
Diary Study, Design Sprint
Workshops, Figma
Delieverable
57% increase of app satisfaction rate
0→I vision experience for new technology
End-to-end design process for an MVP
Activity Viewer is the first-phase MVP for Lutron's automation vision enabled by the new shade automation technology.
With Activity Viewer you can check shade automation movements and decide if you want it on.
You have an event 2:00-3:00 PM at Open Office East, check if the shade is going to interrupt?
Interact with the prototype to find out!
Lutron Shade sales stalled because customers weren't seeing the value.
To address this, the Business plans to expand our shade automation from Residential Sites and Tilted Shade to Commercial Sites and Roller Shades.
2023
2024
Market Expansion for
Shade Automation Technology
Lutron Shade sales stalled because customers weren't seeing the value.
To address this, the Business plans to expand our shade automation from Residential Sites and Tilted Shade to Commercial Sites and Roller Shades.
2023
2024
Market Expansion for
Shade Automation Technology
The expansion will more than triple the market, and shade automation has been successful.
However, I was concerned the expansion relied too much on assumptions. To advocate for the users, I shared the reasoning with managements.
Bigger Natural Light Impact
Roller shades allow more natural light in, which might cause more disruption than tilted shades
Different Use Case
Residential and commercial sites can have different scenarios the design needs to take care of
Key Concerns to the Expansion
I successfully proposed a UX strategy to bring user voice into the product plan.
Throughout the process, I worked closely with my Product Owner and PMs in Commercial and Residential Shade Business.
Step 1
Diary Study
Learn users' experience with an immersive study
Step 2
Vision Experience
Create a framework to guide decisions
Step 3
Product Strategy
Chunk down and influence strategy
Step 4
MVP Design
Design the MVP and guard the scalability
UX Strategy
I successfully proposed a UX strategy to bring user voice into the product plan.
Throughout the process, I worked closely with my Product Owner and PMs in Commercial and Residential Shade Business.
Step 1
Diary Study
Learn users' experience with an immersive study
Step 2
Vision Experience
Create a framework to guide decisions
Step 3
Product Strategy
Chunk down and influence strategy
Step 4
MVP Design
Design the MVP and guard the scalability
UX Strategy
I set the goal to evaluate the expansion of the original design to the desired market.
• Is the simple design good enough?
• User needs between different markets?
Market Expansion for Previous Design
From the 2-week immersive study at residential and commercial markets I learned the scenarios for different markets.
Different Needs from Different Sites
But what strikes me more is not the possible difference but the similarity: People like the effect but they wont trust the automation without the followings.
Feel Informed
Right Amount
of Control
Design Principles for Trust
I set the goal to evaluate the expansion of the original design to the desired market.
• Is the simple design good enough?
• User needs between different markets?
Market Expansion for Original Design
From the 2-week immersive study at residential and commercial markets I learned the scenarios for different markets.
Different Needs from Different Sites
But what strikes me more is not the possible difference but the similarity: People like the effect but they wont trust the automation without the followings.
Feel Informed
Right Amount
of Control
Design Principles for Trust
Effortless light and shade experience
combining Automation and Manual
I convinced the stakeholders to expand the project from shade automation to all automation, by storytelling how trust can't be built without thinking automation as a whole.
Automation Vision
I conducted a design sprint to create a Automation Vision Framework through hosting 5+ workshop sessions to help the team empathize and innovate.
Readout
HMW
Ideation
Converge
“I love how my shades are already opened when I get up and go to my living room”
a homeowner at a single home family
“… my monitor is not washed out in the afternoon now …”
a office building tenant, young working professional
HMW
Build trust for users to automation as a whole?
Position Personalization
Override Alert
Flexible Time
Event Editor
Activity Log
Timer for All
Event Editor
Natural Show Integration
Time Clock +
Automation by Area
Design Sprint Process
Effortless light and shade experience
combining Automation and Manual
I convinced the stakeholders to expand the project from shade automation to all automation, by storytelling how trust can't be built without thinking automation as a whole.
Automation Vision
I conducted a design sprint to create a Automation Vision Framework through hosting 5+ workshop sessions to help the team empathize and innovate.
Readout
HMW
Ideation
Converge
“I love how my shades are already opened when I get up and go to my living room”
a homeowner at a single home family
“… my monitor is not washed out in the afternoon now …”
a office building tenant, young working professional
HMW
Build trust for users to automation as a whole?
Position Personalization
Override Alert
Flexible Time
Event Editor
Activity Log
Timer for All
Event Editor
Natural Show Integration
Time Clock +
Automation by Area
Design Sprint Process
1st Phase Design for Automation
Activity Viewer is the first step into building trust to automation for users.
Starting from shade automation:
• Inform users the automation details
• Let users feel in ultimate control
Laid the groundwork for a smoother control for users
I created a simple visualization to communicate and align with stakeholders on how manual and automated controls work. The graphic representation enabled discussion with not just pms but architect.
Enhance sense of control
Scalability for large sites
I proposed to alter the previous "one-fit-all" navigation to an "area-based" navigation, as, from the research, users across commercial and residential showed a area-based mental model when thinking about control.
Visualization for Automation System
Visualization for Automation System
Previous Design
Project-based Navigation
New Design
Area-based Navigation
Should the team invest in the data structure update to enable the area-based navigation?
I worked closely with business and development leaders in investigating the cost effectiveness in this investment. Through storytelling the user stories and design opportunities, the team decided to embark the investment
Carve time for data stcture toensure an on-time delivery of the business goal
I worked with the team to chunk the original plan of allowing both light and shade to react to natural light down to shade first. This allow us to meet the business goal to enable the shade expansion
Previous Data Structure
Project-based
New Data Structure
Area-based
Scope Down
Scope Down
Help users navigate through large amount of devices fast
Instead of controlling shades as device, I grouped shades into meaningful groups. This help users contextualize the control, and enables scalability for larger commercial sites with large-amount of shades.
Familiarize users with numeric information by Timeline Design and Openness Icon
I designed the timeline to simplify automation and created shade openness icons based on user feedback to improve clarity of the numerical details.
Meaningful Shade Groups
Timeline Design
Openness Icon
Boost trust by giving considerate information
Make users feel safe that the automation is not going to interrupt their attempt.
Feel informed when area automation is disabled
From the diary study, I see the need of flexibility to temporarily pause an area and the worry that if the pause is effective.
Paused Movement
Disabled Toast
Simplified time and openness tweak
I stacked essential information in one view to help hotel managers pinpoint causes. Research shows that before dispatching staff to address a request, managers need to investigate historical room data, which is often scattered.
From the diary study
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During the project I demonstrated these skillset to achieve the impacts
• System Thinking Strategize complex architecture across features
• Interpersonal Skill Navigate new concepts through working closely with developers, PMs, and managements
• Boundary-pushing Advocate for users
app satisfaction rate
To learn how useful activity viewer is for shade automation
new project
Formed a 0-1 Vision that elicits more projects
MVP delivery
Launched a steady first step into the automation vision
