Home Energy Hub: Iris
During a graduate-level, Design Management course called "Strategic Technology," myself and five classmates were challenged to concept, design, develop and present a business plan for a ground-breaking product. We had just eight weeks to complete the challenge.
During a graduate-level, Design Management course called "Strategic Technology," myself and five classmates were challenged to concept, design, develop and present a business plan for a ground-breaking product. We had just eight weeks to complete the challenge.
Brief: Develop a business plan for a game-changing strategic technology.
Solution: I collaborated with a talented and diverse group of fellow graduate students on the
development of a system which monitors home energy consumption. We used a variety of
human-centered development techniques to refine the product and interaction design, for example: extreme user interviews, paper prototyping, still-photo surveying and recreating a day in the life. Based on our historical and competitive analysis, I gained insight into our strategic advantage: direct distribution to home owners in comparison to the competition which relies on the unpredictable expansion of the smart grid infrastructure.
My role: concept development, user research, electrical engineering research, market research, graphic design, financial projections
Result: Our group won the business plan competition and one year later, similar products were just hitting the market.
Solution: I collaborated with a talented and diverse group of fellow graduate students on the
development of a system which monitors home energy consumption. We used a variety of
human-centered development techniques to refine the product and interaction design, for example: extreme user interviews, paper prototyping, still-photo surveying and recreating a day in the life. Based on our historical and competitive analysis, I gained insight into our strategic advantage: direct distribution to home owners in comparison to the competition which relies on the unpredictable expansion of the smart grid infrastructure.
My role: concept development, user research, electrical engineering research, market research, graphic design, financial projections
Result: Our group won the business plan competition and one year later, similar products were just hitting the market.
The Iris hub (above) was designed to replace a normal thermostat. Since feedback encourages behavior changes, our group thoroughly discussed the navigation and feedback systems provided by the user interface of the hub.
The additional system components (shown below) could be installed to track lighting and electrical socket usage around the home. Plato (top left) was designed to be plugged directly into existing sockets and relay data consumption back to the Iris hub. For a more stream-lined aesthetic, Jak (top middle) was designed to replace existing, hard-wired sockets. Clipper (top right) was designed to attach to HVAC units to report the amount of energy consumed by heating and cooling. By using the hub and Clipper alone, users could track a majority of their energy usage. Sunny (bottom left) was a light switch dimmer designed to enable the tracking of installed lighting. Surgio (bottom right) was designed for entertainment centers and offices, enabling the tracking of individual sockets so that a user could tell, for instance, how much energy their flatscreen television consumed.
The additional system components (shown below) could be installed to track lighting and electrical socket usage around the home. Plato (top left) was designed to be plugged directly into existing sockets and relay data consumption back to the Iris hub. For a more stream-lined aesthetic, Jak (top middle) was designed to replace existing, hard-wired sockets. Clipper (top right) was designed to attach to HVAC units to report the amount of energy consumed by heating and cooling. By using the hub and Clipper alone, users could track a majority of their energy usage. Sunny (bottom left) was a light switch dimmer designed to enable the tracking of installed lighting. Surgio (bottom right) was designed for entertainment centers and offices, enabling the tracking of individual sockets so that a user could tell, for instance, how much energy their flatscreen television consumed.
Below is a draft of a possible Iris homepage that would walk users through the touchpoints of the Iris system components.
Printed business plan
