Smart Hub
Client: Confidential
Year: 2021
Disciplines:
Concept Development
Industrial design
CAD for Manufacture
Engineering
Industrial design
CAD for Manufacture
Engineering
Professional Smart Hub for Homes and Offices
This smart home hub is a central control panel that allows users to easily manage all of their connected devices, including lights, thermostats, security systems, and more, from a single software application. The package includes a range of smart home sensors and units, such as motion detectors, door and window sensors, and smart plugs, as well as a hub that serves as the main control center. The hub can be professionally installed in a home or office and can be accessed through an intuitive interface on a smartphone or tablet. From this interface, users can perform a variety of tasks, such as turning lights on or off, adjusting the temperature, locking or unlocking doors, and more. They can also remotely grant access to guests, vendors, or delivery drivers by generating temporary codes or keys.
As User control, interface and experience are entirely software-based, interaction with hardware is reduced to "emergency-only": there are two light buttons on the front of the device. From that stand, the gentle, unassertive and easily assimilated appearance of the product perfectly blends into every interior environment.
Initial concept development and visual communication shifted from expressing sharp and robust forms reflecting hardware performance to simplified surfaces that mainly communicate with the environment, which is the direction we ultimately chose.
While end-users have a software-based GUI that enables interaction with their home devices, the hardware was designed with technical professionals in mind - the goal was to alleviate technicians' implementation work by minimizing the number of parts and points of assembly.
We streamlined the initial device setup and mounting in every possible detail. After removing the panel cover with a single "click", the serviceman needs to tighten 4 points using a leveller. The following steps are to add a SIM, SD card and battery and polish cable management via cable holders. Finally, snipping the cover back, the security button and starts the device.
We created intricate plastic parts with careful planning to make them affordable for manufacturing and effortless for assembly and usage. After a few rounds of testing, we removed screws and covers with rock-solid parts just with snippers and click systems. Heat dispersion is also done naturally.
