Solar Decathlon Mobile App
The Solar Decathlon is an annual international competition put on by the U.S. Department of Energy where teams compete to build a full-size solar house that feeds back into the power grid while working to be totally self-sufficient and environmentally friendly.
In 2013 I was chosen to be part of Team Ontario as a member of the mobile app team working on the Solar House - ECHO. We were challenged with creating an app that would allow homeowners to control their house and monitor the usage stats of their house.
The app took home first place in it’s category during the competition.
I worked closely with civil, electrical, and software engineers and architects as part of the engineering team. I was able to work right on site where the house was being constructed, and was able to test and see the app work in real time.
How It Works
By working with the software team I created an interface that allowed homeowners to open and close windows manually through the app, lower and raise window coverings, enable an alarm system, turn lights on and off, or set these features to an automated schedule.
Homeowners were able to check outside weather, inside temperatures, turn on and off appliances through the app. They were also able to see total consumed energy and total produced energy from the house.
I kept the navigation flat while giving the occupants of the house as much information as possible. Using a visual language for the interface allows for a quick learning process and controls that makes sense to the person's surroundings. Visual states makes it easy for the occupant to tell which settings are on and off at a glance, while keeping the visuals accessible to all occupants.
UI Elements States & INTERACTIONS
I made sure to keep the app interactions very visual and replicated the physical design of the object the occupant was manipulating. This allowed the occupant to learn quickly what the states on the app meant since they matched up with the physical window, blind or object they are changing the state of.
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