Multidisciplinary Designer
Google Design Sprint: SmartMirror
Digital • Spring 2024
Imagine a mirror that transforms into a personalized information hub, a productivity assistant, and an entertainment center.
That's the core concept behind SmartMirror, a project I undertook in my UX Design class during a five-day Google Design Sprint. Our team explored the possibilities of interactive displays inside of the home environment, and we ultimately landed on creating a smart mirror that prioritizes user needs, entertains, and offers a seamless user experience.
“Smart home statistics show that in 2024, 69.91 million US households will use smart home devices actively.” - oberlo.com
Problem Definition
Conventional windows and mirrors are, well, kind of boring. They’re large, sit stationary in the household, and people often spend their time staring at or through them while pondering their day or brushing their teeth. Window in a bad spot? You’re doomed to stare at a brick wall or your neighbor’s arguments for the next few years. Mirrors? You’ve seen yourself a million times already! We saw an opportunity to create a smart window that could non-intrusively display helpful information, control smart home features, or even possibly project calming nature scenes.
Audience
Our target audience encompassed a broad range of users:- Tech-savvy individuals interested in a personalized home environment.
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Urban dwellers who crave a connection with nature within their living spaces.
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Busy professionals who value organization and readily available information.
- People with limited mobility who would benefit from voice-controlled smart home integration.
Team/Role
Our design sprint team consisted of three members. I acted as the moderator during concept testing and usability studies, facilitating discussions and making sure participants felt comfortable enough to share their honest feedback.
Constraints
The biggest constraints were time (a five-day sprint) and the largely hypothetical nature of the project. We mainly relied on user insights and rapid prototyping to create and develop a concept of our SmartMirror without actually building a physical product.Design Process
We followed the Google Design Sprint framework:
Day 1
We started by understanding the problem and defining the target audience.
"How Might We" Questions:
- How might we enhance the usage of a window vs. inhibit people from enjoying the window?
- How might we add multiple features while making an easily usable learnable Ul
- How might we display information to users?
- How might we brighten up a mundane view?
- How might we make the window experience more pleasurable ?
- How might we serve the user with smart window features?
Day 2
We sketched our initial ideas for the smart window’s functionalities, focusing mainly on three things: productivity, entertainment, and social interaction. We then prioritized mission-critical user stories to guide us on our design decisions.
Day 3
Three different concepts emerged: a smart mirror, a smart window, and a smart door.
Day 4
We conducted concept testing with five participants found at the Undercaf, a hangout location on our college campus.
The feedback revealed that there were mixed feelings on the smart window due to some potential view obstruction. The smart door concept wasn't particularly well-received, either, with participants concerned about how often they look at their door in their day-to-day life. However, the smart mirror resonated with users who liked the idea of integrating new displays with their daily routines. We learned a lot of valuable insights about user preferences for size, UI design, and information hierarchy.
Day 5
Based on the feedback, we created a high-fidelity prototype of the SmartMirror, focusing on creating intuitive navigation and onboarding, clear display of information, and access to customizable features.
We then conducted usability testing with our new design to identify any challenges that users faced while interacting with the new prototype.
Overall, we found that users wanted easier access to features, but disliked the dropdown menu and preferred clear icons on the home screen. These insights enabled us to refine the prototype by replacing the dropdown menu with intuitive icons on the home screen, ultimately creating a more accessible and user-friendly experience!
Retrospective
With some extra time, we could have conducted more in-depth user research to understand specific use cases for the SmartMirror. Additionally, trying to simulate the look of a mirror and its output on a regular screen limited our ability to test contrast and user experience in a realistic setting.
Being able to actually integrate voice and gesture control would further enhance the user experience, but due to technology limitations, we were not able to have that feature available in the prototype.Looking Forward
The Google Design Sprint proved to be an extremely valuable tool for rapidly iterating and refining our concept! We learned the importance of always being flexible and constantly adapting our ideas based on user feedback. A design that looks good to a designer doesn’t necessarily look good to users, and it’s important to always be cognizant of that.
The SmartMirror has the potential to upgrade the home environment, giving users a personalized and interactive display that can cater to individual needs and preferences. Overall, the success of this project highlights the importance of user-centered design in creating innovative and impactful technologies.
Day 4
We conducted concept testing with five participants found at the Undercaf, a hangout location on our college campus.The feedback revealed that there were mixed feelings on the smart window due to some potential view obstruction. The smart door concept wasn't particularly well-received, either, with participants concerned about how often they look at their door in their day-to-day life. However, the smart mirror resonated with users who liked the idea of integrating new displays with their daily routines. We learned a lot of valuable insights about user preferences for size, UI design, and information hierarchy.
Day 5
Based on the feedback, we created a high-fidelity prototype of the SmartMirror, focusing on creating intuitive navigation and onboarding, clear display of information, and access to customizable features.We then conducted usability testing with our new design to identify any challenges that users faced while interacting with the new prototype.
Overall, we found that users wanted easier access to features, but disliked the dropdown menu and preferred clear icons on the home screen. These insights enabled us to refine the prototype by replacing the dropdown menu with intuitive icons on the home screen, ultimately creating a more accessible and user-friendly experience!
Retrospective
With some extra time, we could have conducted more in-depth user research to understand specific use cases for the SmartMirror. Additionally, trying to simulate the look of a mirror and its output on a regular screen limited our ability to test contrast and user experience in a realistic setting. Being able to actually integrate voice and gesture control would further enhance the user experience, but due to technology limitations, we were not able to have that feature available in the prototype.
Looking Forward
The Google Design Sprint proved to be an extremely valuable tool for rapidly iterating and refining our concept! We learned the importance of always being flexible and constantly adapting our ideas based on user feedback. A design that looks good to a designer doesn’t necessarily look good to users, and it’s important to always be cognizant of that. The SmartMirror has the potential to upgrade the home environment, giving users a personalized and interactive display that can cater to individual needs and preferences. Overall, the success of this project highlights the importance of user-centered design in creating innovative and impactful technologies.