Smart Home Heating System

Question: Write an article for an Interface Design magazine that describes how you designed and why you chose that particular interface. You will need to discuss how your design meets the user requirements and enhances their experience. You should mention what factors influenced your design, how they influenced it and why. You should discuss similar interfaces that have given you the ideas or elements that you have used. You will also need to discuss the reasoning behind your design and WHY YOU think that this design is the best solution to this particular problem. Answer: Smart Home Heating System: A Smart Device for the Smart Users When I started working designing something innovative, the idea of designing a smart home heating system came to my mind. I explored the relevant research topics and works of some reputed researchers and I found that a new smart home heating system is needed (A Summary of User Interface Design Principles, 1998). I also did a survey on the domestic uses of heating device and I found that there is a large number of people who use home heating system but the control devices are of old design and low life. Moreover, these devices need non-reusable batteries that needs to be changed frequently. For this reason, I decided to design a device that will not need these batteries, will have a smooth and attractive user interface and can be used easily by the users (Gremeau, 2012). The first idea that came to my mind was a new smartphone like device with a touchpad and rechargeable battery system. With this, the device can be recharged and reused for a long time. Another thing that came to my mi nd was designing a new system that will automatically instruct the heating device to close when one leaves the room and automatically start when one enters the room. For the innovation of design, I kept few things in mind: Innovative and Attractive Design The device must be innovative in design and attractive for interesting the customers. Moreover, the design must be unique in nature. I used a touch pad in the control device with a transparent background with an ultra-modern look. Affordable Prices I kept in mind people want products that are unique, innovative as well as affordable. Therefore, I designed the device such that the manufacturer can manufacture it easily at low expenses. Ease of Use The device must be easy to use and the customers must understand the instructions to use the device properly. Longevity The device must survive for a long period. In my design, I used rechargeable battery that can be charged again and again with long battery life. My design was inspired from the smartphones that use smooth touch screen interface with an attractive outer design. I used the same technique in my device. Moreover, I added software support to the device (Nielsen, 2012). I used a microcontroller chip in the device so that the device can be controlled from remote location with the help of the phone or computer. Again, I was inspired from auto switch mechanisms that automatically turn on or off when someone enters or leaves a room. I used similar mechanism in my device. It can be configured such that it can automatically switch on, off or hibernate according to users requirements. I added another feature to it, the gesture control (Sachs, Duvier, Cheney Akers, 2012). This is a new technique that is attracting a lot of people. So I decided to use it my device. After a lot of analysis, I added a software support that can be used from a smartphone such that the smartphone can be used as the remote control device. I also added security layers so that only a specific user can use it. For this, I added a login feature that must be used with a password. Finally, I gave a finishing touch to the device so that the interface gets an attractive look. However, I made sure everything are in place so that the users do not understand how to use it. Figure: My design as shown in a model smartphone Now coming to the commercial and social part, I kept in mind several aspects. Firstly, the cost of the system should be such that it is affordable to all levels of customers and the seller should make decent profit from the sales (Shan Seuken, 2007). Another aspect here is that, the uniqueness of a design as well as attractive interface will attract more customers to buy the product. Again, the reusable nature and long battery life will attract even more customers. Secondly, the design has to be easily understood along with an ultramodern outlook to achieve commercial success. Moreover, the uniqueness of design will help the seller to get ahead of the rival companies in terms of net sale of products (Teo, 2010). Again, the device should be easy to manufacture, or for the software support easy to program, with least possible manufacture cost to gain maximum profits. These are the basics that I kept in mind for developing the smart home heating system. I analyzed each factor and developed the device after a long period of research and survey. References Gremeau, L. (2012). Service Providers the Smart Home (1st ed.). NIELSEN, J. (2012).Thinking Aloud: The #1 Usability Tool.Nngroup.com. Sachs, O., Duvier, C., Cheney, K., Akers, C. (2012). Field Evaluation of Programmable Thermostats (1st ed.). Teo, T. (2010). A path analysis of pre-service teachers' attitudes to computer use: applying and extending the technology acceptance model in an educational context.Interactive Learning Environments,18(1), 65-79.