Kin

A smart home system that supports users’ daily routines while protecting their privacy.

Overview

Duration: 8 months
Platforms: Mobile, Tablet, Smart Home Appliances
Team: Nirman Bisla, Jeel Jasani, Lisa Kim, Jess Phoa, Eric Yi
Role: Project Lead, UX Designer

Kin is an MHCI Capstone project in collaboration with Bosch Research and Technology Center to develop a secure smart home solution. We started with in-depth user research, where we investigated security and privacy concerns around smart homes. The second part of the project was to produce high-fidelity designs and working prototypes.

Phase 1: Interviews and Literature Reviews

Interviews

We interviewed seven participants to get a better understanding of a person’s mental model of privacy around smart devices and how data is stored. We asked them about their experiences with smart devices such as smart watches, fitness trackers, smartphones etc., and then made them think about how their data is used.

Phase 2: Surveys and Cardigami

Surveys

We wanted to gain insights about perceived utility and users’ willingness to share certain types of data across a spectrum of actors. The first round of surveys focused on personal health monitoring and home energy usage monitoring. In the second round, we wanted to investigate boundaries and use cases in which they were not comfortable sharing health monitoring and smart meter data.

Cardigami (Original Research Method)

Card sorting is a method that requires participants to organize cards into categories that make sense to them. Whereas business origami is a method that uses paper cut-outs of people, buildings, etc. that represent various stakeholders within a system to prototype interactions.

Smart Devices

Actors – Government

Actors – Business

Actors – Family

Lines – Boundaries and Groupings

Affinity Diagram

Creating affinity diagram is a way to synthesize massive amount of data. After the first and second phase of the research, we gathered and transcribed all the information (on Super-sticky postits) and put them on 2 giant boards.We then sorted similar ideas into groups. Through arranging and rearranging notes, we extracted out the essence of the groups and consolidated high-level understanding as well as detailed findings from our research. These insights helped us create scenarios and opportunities for speed dating.

Purple notes: individual insights

Pink notes/ Green notes: Higher level categories

Cyan notes: Ideas, “Aha”-moments

Phase 3: From Generative To Evaluative Design

Speed Dating

Speed dating is a design method for rapidly exploring application concepts and their associated interactions. It is a low-fidelity technique that combines aspects of sketching and prototyping; it is used to test and evaluate the validity of new ideas. We conducted nine speed dating sessions with new families and parents to test social boundaries of security, privacy and monitoring within the home. The scenarios were intentionally designed to provoke users to think about how these scenarios might apply to them.

User Enactment

User enactment allowed participants to interact with smart home devices. We used a user testing technique called the “Wizard of Oz” to user test the low-fidelity interface in a simulated home setting.

Smart TV

Smart Fridge

Security Camera

Kitchen

Dinning Table

Front Porch

Washing Machine

Office

Lofi Prototype

Mid-fi Prototype

We conducted nine usability testing sessions. We expanded our testing demographics to further different geographical areas for more diversity. In this version of prototype, we moved from paper prototypes to InVision, a digital prototyping tool. We decided to focus on people’s task completion rate instead of concept validation during our mid-fi prototyping sessions. Click here to visit the InVision mockup.

Hi-fi Prototype

The final deliverable of this project is to produce a set of fully functional user interface with detailed design specifications that will help Bosch to develop their smart home system. We conducted nine high-fidelity usability testing sessions with people including parents, students, and working professionals. In this version of our prototype, we wanted to get people’s feedback on the look and feel of Kin, as well as finalize the Routines feature. Click here to interact with the hi-fi prototype.