2022
GE CYNC SMART CLIMATE CONTROL
GE Lighting’s Cync family of smart home products are designed to leverage the trusted GE name to offer DIY smart home users an intuitive and approachable path to home automation.
To further extend into the world of ‘smart home’, GE Lighting came to BALANCE to help design a new smart thermostat and accompanying temperature sensor.
The Challenge:
Installing a new thermostat can be intimidating, especially for the novice/DIY smart home user. GE Lighting, a Savant Company, approached us to design a new Smart Thermostat for their newly minted line of smart home products, dubbed 'Cync', that offered the easiest setup and installation experience out of any thermostat on the market.
The Outcome:
The CYNC Smart Thermostat and Temperature Sensor give you temperature control from anywhere—even away from home—for optimal comfort when you need it. Through its simple, approachable design, high-contrast touch display, wiring bracket, and Power Extender Kit, the CYNC Smart Thermostat is designed to be as easy and straightforward to use- from setup to daily use.
THE PROCESS
We began by understanding the user's installation and setup experience thru contextual interviews. Next, we mapped these experiences to find high and low points in the experience and gain empathy with end-users. Thru these exercises, we prioritized fundamental experience principles and creative constraints that informed the physical design of all the thermostat components.
Utilizing these user requirements, tight cost, and engineering constraints, we designed an intuitive and approachable smart thermostat for the novice DIY user.
A significant part of design exploration was applying and evolving the CYNC Experience Brand Language that has been established and ensuring a consistent experience across all CYNC products.
DESIGNED FOR EASY INSTALLATION
For inexperienced homeowners, setup and installation can be a significant barrier to adopting smart technology. In addition, inexperienced homeowners are intimidated by playing with their home's wiring for fear of damaging their home or themselves. The new CYNC smart thermostat and temperature sensor allow homeowners to quickly and painlessly upgrade their climate control, giving them peace of mind, saving them money, and giving them ultimate control of their home environment.
The CYNC thermostat was designed to help support the intimidating parts of the experience, like wiring. Through the industrial design of critical install components like the Power Extender Kit and wiring bracket, we made wiring a straightforward and easy-to-understand part of the process.
BETTER CONTROL OF YOUR COMFORT
The Cync temperature sensor is designed to be an elegant and discrete peel-and-stick button on the wall. It allows the homeowner to regulate the temperature across their home, not just the room with the thermostat. Setting up one or more temperature sensors around the house will enable users to set routines and schedules and better control their environment for themselves and their loved ones.
