Too many separate controls
Users have to move between different apps and device systems to manage everyday tasks.
01
Product Design - 2025–2026
Omvia
Omvia brings smart-home routines, devices, safety, and caregiving into one calm, clear interface, making everyday home management easier without jumping between multiple apps.
- Role
- Product Designer, 3-person team
- Contribution
- Led UI design and visual direction; contributed to research, user flows, branding, prototyping, and testing.
- Tools
- Figma, FigJam, Basecamp, Maze
- Timeframe
- Sep 2025 - Jan 2026
- Year
- 2025–2026
USABILITY TEST RESULTS
Maze usability testing
- Participants
- 20
- Remote safety task
- 65% → 92%
- Caregiver task
- 80% → 100%
- Routine task
- 70% → 100%
01 / The Problem
Smart home technology should make daily life easier, but managing multiple apps, devices, routines, and alerts can quickly become another source of stress.
Important information is easy to miss
Safety and home-status updates can be buried when users need reassurance quickly.
Care can become intrusive
Families need ways to check on loved ones without turning the home into a surveillance system.
The goal
Create one calm, easy-to-use smart home experience that supports everyday routines, remote safety, and caregiving without adding more complexity.
02 / Research
Tools used: FigJam · Figma
Research began with a review of existing smart-home products and early problem-framing exercises. The goal was to narrow the broad smart-home space into specific situations where a more focused experience could be useful.
Competitive Review
Google Home and Samsung SmartThings were reviewed to understand how established products organize devices, routines, alerts, and home controls.
Google Home
What works Strong device integration across a broad smart-home ecosystem.
Gap / opportunity Routine information and common actions can become buried across multiple layers.
Samsung SmartThings
What works Powerful automation and deep control for advanced users.
Gap / opportunity The technical depth can make everyday tasks harder for less technical users.
Key Takeaway
Both products offered strong device control, but managing a connected home could still involve moving between devices, rooms, settings, and alerts. This created an opportunity to make everyday home management feel more focused and easier to understand.
Framing the Problem
A problem-framing exercise explored who might experience friction, when it could happen, and which situations were worth examining more closely.
Exploring User Needs
Three situations were explored further to understand the different needs that could shape the experience.
Narrowing the Focus
Everyday routines
Busy households may need a quicker way to manage repeated actions across several devices.
Away from home
Homeowners may need an easier way to check important home information and control devices remotely.
Supporting family
Family members may need useful updates and remote support without constantly monitoring someone.
1 FOCUS GROUP SESSION
Focus Group Validation
Before moving into wireframes, an early focus group was used to validate whether the personas, problem framing, and smart-home concept aligned with the needs identified during research. The discussion reinforced the value of centralized control while highlighting areas that needed more clarity, including access permissions, emergency support, and independence for older users.
Centralized control
One simpler place to manage connected home devices.
Clearer permissions
Roles and access needed clearer boundaries.
Independent support
Older users should remain in control while still being able to give family access when needed.
03 / From Needs to Solutions
The three focus areas were translated into product decisions that shaped Omvia’s core experience.
User / SituationNeedOmvia response
01
Busy household
Everyday routines
Manage a busy home without jumping between apps.
Routines
Reusable routines group common household actions for a quick start.
Turns scattered device controls into one clearer household flow.
02
Remote homeowner
Away from home
Get quick reassurance without digging through the app.
Secure Home
Home status and safety controls in one place for remote checks.
Makes important safety information easier to understand from a distance.
03
Family caregiver
Supporting a loved one
Know a loved one is safe without intrusive monitoring.
Wellness Checks
Meaningful updates and alerts when something may need attention.
Supports caregiving with reassurance, not surveillance.
04 / Structure
Tool used: FigJam
The app was organized around five core areas: Home, Devices, Routines, Alerts, and Settings, keeping the main experience clear and easy to navigate.
05 / Early Design
Tool used: Figma
Low-fidelity wireframes were used to work through the dashboard hierarchy, five-part navigation, and routine setup flow before adding the final visual system.
Onboarding
0102Home Dashboard
Devices
03Routine Setup
Alert
Settings
What this stage helped define
Dashboard hierarchy
Worked out how home status, routines, and important updates should be prioritized on the main dashboard.
Five-part navigation
Established Home, Devices, Routines, Alerts, and Settings as the main areas of the app.
Routine setup flow
Defined the steps for moving from routine selection and setup to activation.
06 / Visual Direction
Tools used: Adobe Illustrator · Figma
The visual direction shaped Omvia into a softer smart-home experience: calm instead of clinical, familiar instead of technical, and reassuring at a glance.
Calm, not clinical
Keep the language clear and the visual cues soft, so the experience feels reassuring rather than technical.
Designed around routines, not devices
Organize the experience around everyday rooms and routines instead of making people manage one device at a time.
Reassurance at a glance
Keep important home, safety, and caregiving information easy to find and understand.
Logo exploration
Why The Home Pulse
The Home Pulse was chosen because the house shape made the smart-home purpose immediately clear, while the pulse line connected to safety, routines, and Wellness Checks. The Routine Loop communicated connection, but felt more abstract.
Colour Palette
Trust Blue
#2E48C8
Key actions and primary UI elements.Calming Lavender
#D5C7F7
Adds a softer, more relaxed feel.Soft Cyan
#65D1E4
Adds freshness and subtle highlights.Clean White
#FFFFFF
Keeps layouts open and breathable.Alert Orange
#FFB937
Highlights important states and actions.UI System
Reusable components were created to keep controls, states, and room-based device management consistent across Omvia.
Moodboard
Visual research focused on interfaces and imagery that felt calm, approachable, and trustworthy rather than highly technical. References were collected around soft colour, rounded forms, clear hierarchy, and subtle status cues to shape Omvia’s soft-tech direction.
07 / Final Experience
Tool used: Figma
The final interface brings the core flows together across onboarding, routines, devices, settings, and alerts, with more space for the product itself to take focus.
Sign In / Onboarding
Guides users from introduction and device setup to secure sign in.
Brand Entry
Welcome
User Need
Setup
Sign In
Routines
Brings repeated device actions, custom triggers, and Wellness Checks into one setup flow.
Routine Hub
Morning Rush
Routine Detail
Triggers
Wellness Setup
Room Selection
Schedule
Review
Active
Devices
Organizes connected devices by room and provides a clear way to secure the home.
Grid View
Active Controls
List View
Settings
Brings account security, access, voice assistants, and privacy controls into one place.
Settings Home
Voice Assistant
Security
Access
Password
Account Details
Alerts
Helps users understand what happened, judge urgency, and respond quickly.
Alert
Respond
08 / Testing
Tool used: Maze
The prototype was tested in Maze with 20 participants across three key tasks to identify where people hesitated, got stuck, or needed clearer feedback.
Task
You’re at the airport and forgot to lock up. Find your devices and secure the home in under 5 seconds.
92%
Up from 65%
Task
You receive an alert about your parents’ morning activity. Check how urgent it is and make a quick call.
100%
Up from 80%
Task
It’s a busy morning. Go to routines and activate the Morning Rush routine in under 4 seconds.
100%
Up from 70%
Key Feedback
“I find it hard to manage my mom’s safety alerts. The text is difficult to read on the move, and since all alerts look kind of the same, I can’t quickly tell what’s urgent.”
“I finished setting up my devices and tapped Go to Home, but was taken to a login screen. It felt confusing.”
“The Secure Home button at the top feels a bit intimidating. I’m worried I might tap it by accident and shut everything down.”
Feedback was grouped into three design priorities:
01 Readability + Alert Priority02 Clearer Setup Progress03 Safer Secure Home Action
09 / What Changed
Tools used: Maze · Figma
Testing led to three direct changes: clearer alert priority, clearer setup language, and a safer Secure Home action.
Issue 01
Alert priority and status information were hard to scan
Users needed clearer home-status information and a better way to distinguish urgent alerts. The revised design improved status styling and used colour to make urgent updates easier to spot.
01
01
02
02Issue 02
Setup completion was unclear
“Go to Home” suggested setup was finished when it was not. Changing the CTA to “Complete Setup” made the next step clearer.
03
03Issue 03
Secure Home needed clearer reassurance
Users worried about triggering Secure Home accidentally. Moving the action lower and adding confirmation made it feel safer and more deliberate.
04
0410 / Outcome
Omvia evolved into a clearer smart-home experience centered on routines, remote reassurance, and supportive caregiving. Testing with 20 participants improved success across all three key tasks, including remote safety from 65% to 92%, caregiver alerts from 80% to 100%, and routine activation from 70% to 100%.
View Prototype ↗Omvia Case Study
Thanks for viewing
by Esther Odeyemi