Enviromental Information Design
The Challenge
Imagine a device that sits in an indoor location collecting temperature, humidity, and air quality information and can send that information to a mobile app. The raw sensor readings alone are not particularly helpful to the average user. Many people do not understand what the numbers mean and what a to do with the information that is provided. Design an experience that would present to a user the environmental information provided by such a device in an understandable and engaging way.
Challenge Duration: 1 week
Tool: Figma
Frame Setting
Indoor environment is a broad definition; in order to better approach the problem to focus as well as design solution, setting a frame as boundry to start is the first step.Meanwhile, due to COVID-19 pandemic, home has become one of the major indoor place where people spend a lot of time for work and living.
- Environment: Home
- Limitation: having only sensors but not yet smart home controls to be able to “auto-adjust” the environment accordingly; in other words, it requires still (manual) human actions.
Quick Research -
User Interviews Questions1. What are the (user) expectations of Temparature, Humidity, Air Quality reader at home?
2. Why those index or numbers are not useful or meaningful for users?
“I wish it can remind me things like when to open window, put on some lotions or lib balm,” ––– 🙆🏻♀️
“My doctor suggested me to install an App to track the Pollen amount, but I always forget and sometimes when I get reminded, I already started sneezing.”––– 🤷🏼♀️
“The general monitoring app is for outdoor and too general!”––– 🤷🏼♀️
“It would be great if it can even provide me in advance what I’ll need, and also when those products are on Sale!”––– 🙆🏻♀️
“A smart home with monitoring... ideally it should take over the adjustment automatically without me doing it, or?”––– 🙋🏻
Key Findings
- Knowing What To Do or React is a key for user to find the “environmental info” useful or valueable
- Comparison (Relative) > Absolut
- Personalised info is more trustworthy than general one
Persona
How Might We provide Sharon a more meaningful understanding to her “environment condition”?
How Might We help Sharon to live a better life quality without allergy symptons?
How Might We help Sharon adjust her living space to the most suitable condition with least effort
Gaining Domain Knowledge
Summary of Learning
- Raw data should be “translatable” for user for better understanding and relation
- Air Quality is a combination of factors; individual of them is far away from general public’s understanding
- Recommendations are too generic to not be able to tailored to individual’s needs.
- Like how THI index shows “ risk of heat stress”; Human perceptions is not necessarily corresponding or even equal to raw numbers presenting.
Use Cases, Flows and Sketches
Color Exploration
Design
Prototype
