The Katerra Smart Thermostat is a powerful control device that fits neatly in a standard Decora frame.  It is paired with Katerra's KOVA HVAC and a powerful AI system to provide an incredible user experience all while saving energy and money.

My Role

Principal Architect of Product Design, Design Lead, Interaction Design Contributor

The Challenge

The Goal

Katerra had been working a family of AI powered devices to include in their smart building.  What was missing, was a worthy interface for control.  Recognizing an opportunity, my team proposed creating a small touch screen interface that could be very easily included within the existing building process.

Design and build a small touch screen controller that could fit in a standard decora housing and still be used to provide all needed thermostat functionality as well as be adapted to control a wide range of smart devices.

The Beginning

Thermostats are heavily regulated devices (especially in California), so it was important to confirm all the functions that would need to be supported.  I needed to work closely with the Katerra Product team to gather all necessary requirements and ensure that we would be able to get all the necessary certifications.  The design team also worked closely with the Hardware team to ensure that any hardware components selected would be able to provide the performance and interaction needed while still minimizing cost.

The Design

Once requirements had been completed, I needed to establish the overall Information Architecture to ensure that all the necessary views would be included.

Given the tiny screen, extensive work was done to prototype different interaction patterns so that we could ensure ease of use and reliable control.  From the beginning we were convinced that physical buttons needed to be part of the device.

Once the patterns were established we got to work on the design.  I wrote the design specifications and worked with the visual and motion designers on my team to deliver all the needed assets and guides.

The video shown here is from one of my many sessions with development to test the daily build.

The Result

The Smart Thermostat was an integral part of Katerra's KOVA AI HVAC program and showcased at many trade shows.  It was slated to go into mass production in 2020, but was postponed due to COVID-19 impacts.

Contact

Email: mo.selim@outlook.com
LinkedIn: @moselim

© Mo Selim