Emerson is the world’s leading provider of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration
solutions for residential, industrial, and commercial applications. Sensi was looking to continue improve their award-winning product line by introducing the largest full-color screen thermostat at a competitive price point. This program involved both Industrial Design and UX/UI design, ensuring a holistic design for the physical and digital experiences.
ClientEmerson SensiServicesUX/UI Design, Industrial DesignYear2017
Emerson’s older generation thermostats utilized the traditional white plastic design styling of the past. For this product, they wanted to set a new standard to bring themselves into a modern aesthetic. Competition looked more like high-end electronics inspired by smartphones and Emerson knew that this design had to make a big splash in the market.
Image boards were generated to ensure we were targeting the high-tech feel that the Emerson team desired and that were independently unique from the competition. Initial 2D concept sketches explored a wide variety of executions, materials, and constructions for Emerson to evaluate. Modern high-tech aesthetics could be expressed via simplified, minimized forms, or through high-end metallic materials and colors. Several rounds of exploration yielded a few key directions to explore further in 3D, rendering, and prototypes.
After several rounds, the final industrial design direction took inspiration from several concepts:
Introducing the largest color touchscreen LCD on the market provided the opportunity for potentially new interactions and features, which included:
With these requirements in hand, exploration started with evaluating design system elements like typography for both the temperature and other complimentary visual elements. These concepts explored various UI styles for the main screen, temperature progress bar, set temperature, and overall Emerson Sensi brand language. Variations included:
The final implementation included a variety of elements from various concepts, including a subtle gradient graphics approach, a progress / set temperature bar, a menu which provided access to enhanced features like back glow and brightness, and more. A component library could be used across the embedded and mobile app interfaces.
This animation file was generated to exemplify simple transitions that assist users with the mental model of where elements exist:
Sensi had a strong reputation for ease of use on their previous thermostats and looked to build on that via:
A user flow diagram was generated for the installation, taking note of detailing additional steps that could assist with improved clarity and use such as: the removal of jumper cables, the addition of a c-wire install kit, and more.
Quick wireframes were generated from the user flow diagram for heuristic evaluations. The installation process was documented, wireframed, tested with hardware, updated, and refined several times. The primary purpose of these early wireframes were to identify additional detailed steps that may have been missed as part of the install process.
This evaluation was on the current Sensi app, identifying pain-points with the current UI. The evaluation discovered:
As part of the heuristic evaluation, concepts of improved layouts were generated that examined:
The heuristic evaluation and informal user testing showcased challenges with the current scheduling flow, including:
Wireframing and concepting for the scheduling process came next, examining visualization that’s familiar to calendar tasks as opposed to lists. Several iterations explored ways to simplify the overall interaction, removal of modals, and different UI executions within the design system language. Final concept improvements included:
This thermostat became and continues to be a best-seller for Emerson in the marketplace, earning praise and accolades, from Frost.com:
“Based on its recent analysis of the global smart thermostats market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Emerson with the 2019 Global Customer Value Leadership Award for the best-in-class installation, top-rated user experience, and energy and cost savings enabled by its flagship Sensi™ product line. The award-winning solution provides homeowners with complete control over their home’s comfort, from wherever they are, through seamless smartphone integration and best-in-class service.”
Video credit to the Emerson/Sensi team: