This project was for the 30 Day UX Challenge spearheaded by Tony Maura on LinkedIn. The challenge: Create a Smart Home AI Assistant in 30 days.

The process for this project was dictated by the 30 Day UX/UI Challenge. Each week is a different stage of the process with deliverables due each week. The process was conceptualize, research, design, and pitch.

The first week of this challenge was all about navigating ambiguity. With a very vague prompt, I had to determine my won direction. I explored the world of AI assistants, challenges that come with them, problems, they can solve and ended the week with a concept to move forward with.

I arrived at my initial concept by creating a mind map to organize my ideas, explored the problem space, had a brainstorming session, created a storyboard to flush out my concept, summarized my concept, and created initial sketches, or wireframes.

The concept I decided to move forward with is a smart assistant that prioritizes family time and sustainability and is integrated through home and portable smart devices.

The value of this smart home assistant is to take out any work and barriers that prevents families from making more sustainable decisions. Key features include coordinating carpooling, managing energy consumption, meal prep, food waste reduction, and incorporating biophilic design benefits into the home.

To finish the week off, I sketched out my thoughts for the AI smart home assistant in the form of an app. This first iteration has 5 screens: Home, Family, Eco, Devices, and Account/Settings.

Week two consisted of learning and information gathering. My goal was to understand the preferences, habits, and technological behaviors of the target audience in a smart home setting. I needed insights on tasks and interactions the use would want their personal AI assistant to handle. Researching existing smart home ecosystems and AI-powered personal assistants was paramount to understanding where they succeed and where they fall short.​

The challenge put a special emphasis on ethically designing our assistants. To do that, I planned to research privacy, data security, and device control in the smart home environment.​

Deliverables for this week would include:

Carrying out user research with real people (surveys and interviews)

Conducting a Landscape Analysis of existing home ecosystems and AI assistant

Researching best practices for designing integrated AI-powered smart home solutions prioritizing ethical use of data

I sent out surveys to users in my target audience and received 10 replies. Below is a list of key findings with my thoughts in italics.

Privacy is a main and prevalent concern of participants for smart home devices in every aspect they were questioned about, although 90% of participants currently use smart devices.

The most popular room to have a smart device is the living room with least popular the bathroom.

Participants like the ease and convenience of smart home devices.

Participants felt smart home devices are good at simplifying tasks.

Participants wish smart devices did more of their chores and gave them more privacy

While 80% of participants strongly agree their family’s health is their priority, only 30% strongly agree they take an active role in helping their family maintain or improve their health. -> can a smart device help fill this gap?

When asked what users would want a health promoting smart device to do, healthy meal recommendations and exercise were the most prevalent answers -> surprised it wasn’t more health data, are they experiencing data overload?

Collecting health data was the most popular concern raised about a smart device focused on health -> can we improve health without collecting data?

Participants were more likely to hop on board with a smart device that saves money on utilities rather than one focused on sustainability -> a smart device focused on sustainability does decrease money spent on utilities? Need to make sure marketing and language match up with user values.

Sustainable smart device became more appealing when no work was needed from the user -> hypothesis that users think sustainability = more work

To understand what is currently available to users, I analyzed the smart home and AI assistant landscape. I analyzed the top 4 in this category (at the time of the project), which include Alexa, Google Home/Assistant, Apple Home, and Samsung Smart Things.​

I analyzed each competitor in regards to the following categories:

overall purpose

strengths

weaknesses

opportunity for enhancements

privacy

data usage

security

notable features

connectivity

accessibility

After researching all about the ethical considerations of this type of technology, I compiled my findings into a best practices list. This included best practices when it comes to privacy, ethical use of data, and designing for all abilities.

After researching, I was still left with questions. It was time to move onto the next phase but I wanted to make note of things I didn't have answers to. This would come in handy when designing my smart assistant for the next week.

This week I translated my concept sketches into a prototype.

Created a high fidelity prototype on Figma

Learned that having an MVP is better than only one very detailed aspect of the app

The prototype of the home screen balances what users liked from existing smart homes and what they needed. Keeping families (our target audience) in mind, the home screen opens with a schedule for the day, followed by a to-do list.

The next section is a customizable grid called "My Stuff." Here, users can choose what is important to them to show. Examples include smart lights, energy usage, contacts, and device controls.

Finally, the bottom of the home screen features a search bar so users can easily find what they need.

The second main navigation page is Devices. This is where users can add and manage devices connected to their AI smart assistant.​

Users can also create routines, or automated actions, to simplify their lives. The smart assistant will also recommend routines based on the user's values.

The Eco page is where users can manage their sustainability. It also allow users tot visibility see the impact their having. It was important to visually show the correlation between money savings and sustainable actions.​

This page also suggests biophilic design features. For example, on this page, the assistant suggests to allow it to change the temperature based on the time of day. This helps mimic nature and promote the body's natural systems, like circadian rhythm.

A value that was important to our target audience was health. To make it easier to maintain and adopt healthy habits, the AI assistant plans out meals, keeps track of your body and environmental health metrics, and suggests science-based actions to take.

Families have a lot to juggle with multiple schedules.​ This page of the assistant app helps with that. By displaying a color-coded calendar, you can easily see each family member's schedule at a glance.​

The activities section suggests things to do in your area based on the interests of your family.​

The final section is the people in your family. Here you can easily contact them or see their location.

In the fourth week of this challenge, I created a pitch for my prototype. The pitch explain the value of Terra, the AI smart home assistant I designed. It also defends my design choices and shows some alternate interaction methods (besides through the app).

The biggest challenge during this four week design, was to have to move on without having things "perfect" or completely figured out. I learned how necessary it was to continue to move forward. It was more important to get something finished than have it perfect. In doing so, I was able to gather more feedback and insights more quickly, leading me to believe that the next iteration would go more quickly and provide more value.​

Overall, I was able to bring a prototype to life in under 4 weeks. I was able to use this project to combine my passions, and learn more about AI and best practices every designer should have on their radar.