Nest
10 Week - Student Project
A redesign of the Nest Thermostat for the Office
Overview
The temperature in the office often an issue, making teams feel disconnected and out of their control. Most thermostats like the Nest aren't built for shared spaces, leading to this discomfort. This redesign reimagines in a "friendly and cheerful" way how the office thermostat can promotes collaboration, teamwork and all around connectedness in the office after the pandemic. Room layouts enable targeted control based on the current location of the room blending with the environment seamlessly. The result is a temperature controlled system that created a shared enjoyable experience for everyone in the office.
My Roles
Project Manager
User interface designer
Team Members
Min Wook Shin
Alana Banister
Hyunsoo Eun
Brian Glennon
Tools
Figma
Jitter
PowerPoint
Client
UXDG 315
Spotlight
Control your comfort, together
Discovery
Defining Terms
What Does Friendly & Cheerful Mean
To quantify the meaning of "friendly" and "cheerful," we created a mood board along with a set of rules to follow in order to achieve a design that conveys this feeling.
Defining Characteristics
With this set of guidelines, we were able to check if our design matched what our client asked for when tasked to create something with that mentality behind. Also, when asked we had direct proof proving our decisions.
Font Style
Sans serif font
Curved edges
Theming
Bright saturated colors
Dark text on light background
Effects
Colored Drop Shadow
35% max opacity
Elements
Lighthearted characters used as accents
Colors
Warm main colors
Cold accent colors
Design Specifics
Filled Icons
1/4 Line weight of text
Initial Research
As well as achieving the friendly and cheerful mood, we also wanted to look into the current issues and pain points that exist in the office.
Insights
With these findings we were able to come to our three goals when redesigning the nest thermostat
A friendly and cheerful feeling
Our goal was to create
A nest created for the office environment
Put temperature control in employees’ hands
?
How might we?
Redesign a device to be engaging, and bring community back to the workplace, while portraying a friendly and cheerful mood.
Design
Finding the best flow
Creating a Wireflow
Before creating any screens we wanted to focus on creating the most understandable user flow as possible.
Rapid Prototyping
Following the user flow, we created an interactive prototype to test our app and how it felt
Refining and Iterating
After reviewing feedback from 9 participants we started creating more iterations that solved these issues.
Some of these included improved hiearchy, understanding of the current state of the thermostat, and recreating the schedule to be more room based
Bringing the idea to Life
After some other tweaks we started to implement our previously researched design guidlines
Character design
Along with the overall design, we also wanted to introduce a playful character that aligns with our design guidelines.
Final design
Pivoting our Design
Before moving forward, the top temperature bar caused confusion. We switched directions and chose a softer, more organic shape instead.
Addressing Accessibility
Along with creating something visually engaging, we wanted to meet accessibility standards, including contrast/size ratios.
Creating Component Library
When we had finished our design, we create a full component library of each element to ensure continuity in our design
Creating a Symphony
Now that the app was created, we needed to create a cohesive nature between both products to live in their ecosystem
Solution
Presenting Nest, built for the office
Request a change without hassle
With our paired app, employees have the ability to request a temperature change to be averaged with the collective.
Saved preferences
No need to change the temperature manually, when creating your profile you are able to set your comfortable range of temperatures allowing the system to find the best average temperature.
Your Events and Rooms
The nest not only covers one room, but every room that each employee would engage in within their calendar as it syncs with their expected schedule and adapts the temperature based on it.
Gamified Savings
In the community tab we have created a leaderboard system that combines working as a group with the savings they were able to accomplish that week.
Endless Personalization
Along with creating a friendly character you are able to customize your personal character depending on your style!
Reflection
What I took away
"Vibes" need to be quantified
Instead of designing just because, creating a ruleset and reasons of design gives myself validation if questioned. When designing further I want to enact this methodology to validate my thinking.
Communication within is the backbone of all projects
While not discussed throughout the case study, this project was something that tested my ability to lead. Communication and motivation were something that we faced internally, but with strides at the end we were able to pull it together.
**this is me promptly after, climbing a tree and touching some grass