Hearth

Redesigning Smart Home Identity

for Every Household Member

Kevin Gao

Product Designer

02

The Setup

Your dad sets up the smart home. Lights, thermostat, door lock, all on one app. Your mom wants to turn off a light, but she'd need to create a full account just to do that. She gives up and asks your dad instead.

​

You open the app to adjust your room temperature, but the home screen is all your dad's routines. Your stuff is nowhere.

Smart home apps force full registration on everyone, but most household members just want to turn on the lights.

03

Problem Space

01

One-Size-Fits-All

Registration

The person who just wants to turn on a light goes through the same signup flow as the person configuring the entire home. Most give up at this step.

02

No Personal

Space

Non-admin users land on the admin's home screen. Admin's routines, admin's preferences. Their own needs have no place.

03

Permission

Black Box

Who can control which device? Can the kid unlock the front door? No visibility, no management tools. Permissions are invisible.

04

Research

🔍

Competitive Audit

Evaluated Google Home, Apple Home, SmartThings, and Alexa across invite friction, personalization, and permission visibility.

🏠

Contextual Interviews

Observed 3 households with smart home setups to understand real usage patterns, pain points, and workarounds.

💡

Insight Synthesis

Pulled together what I learned from interviews and competitive gaps into three insights that shaped the design.

05

Competitive Audit

Key finding: No platform offers per-device permissions or zero-registration invite for household members.

06

Contextual Interviews

Household A · 4 members, 8 devices

"Only the dad uses the app. Mom and kids ask him to make changes. They never open it themselves."

One person controls everything

Household B · 3 members, 5 devices

"The mom tried to set up her own account to control the thermostat. She gave up during the email verification step."

Registration barrier

Household C · 5 members, 12 devices

"Parents explicitly didn't want their kid accessing the front door lock, but had no way to restrict specific devices. It was all-or-nothing."

No granular control

07

Insights

Inviting ≠ Registering

Invited members shouldn't go through the same full registration flow as the person who set up the household.

→

Frictionless Invite

Everyone's "Home" Looks Different

Non-admins see the admin's home screen. Preferences aren't static settings. They're routines tied to time and habit.

→

Personal Space for Everyone

Permissions Need Visibility

Who can control what should be visible to everyone, not just the admin. Right now, if you try to use a device you don't have access to, nothing tells you why it didn't work.

→

Granular, Visible Permissions

08

Design Strategy

Frictionless Invite

↓

Household Setup & Invite

Admin creates household, invites via link. Members join in seconds. Zero registration required.

Personal Space

↓

Profile Switching & My Comfort

Each member gets their own home screen with personal preferences tied to time, temperature, and routines.

Visible Permissions

↓

Permission Management

Admin sets per-device, per-member, and per-schedule access. Members see exactly what they can and can't control.

Design

Three features across mobile and TV,

driven by research insights.

10

Feature 1

Frictionless Invite

Household Setup

Add Members

Invited Onboarding

11

Usability Testing

Method

Moderated task-based testing. Each invited member was given a link and asked to join the household, then complete basic tasks (find and adjust their comfort settings, turn on a light, check their permissions).

Key Finding

4 of 4 invited members completed the join flow in under 30 seconds. But none could explain what devices they had access to afterward. The onboarding dropped them straight into the app with no context about their permissions.

The Problem

Joining was fast, but members had no mental model of their access scope. They didn't know what they could control, what was restricted, or who to ask for changes. Parents also wanted to preview what their kid would see before finalizing permissions.

12

Iteration: Your Access Overview

BEFORE

Drops into app with

no access context

→

AFTER

"Your Access" overview

shows permissions upfront

What Changed

New members now see a "Your Access" screen immediately after joining. It lists:

​

• Devices they can control

• Any schedule restrictions

• Who to contact for changes

​

So before you even start using the app, you know what's yours.

13

Feature 2

Profile Switching & My Comfort

Profile Switcher

My Comfort Settings

Every member gets their own space.

Profile switcher lets household members quickly toggle between accounts without logging out.

​

My Comfort is where you set your personal preferences: temperature, bedtime automation, lighting mood. These are tied to your routines, not shared household defaults.

​

Non-admins no longer land on the admin's home screen. They see their own devices, their own settings, their own shortcuts.

14

Feature 3

Permission Management

Admin View

Member View

Preview as Kid

15

Multi-Platform: TV Experience

Profile Picker

Personalized Dashboard

Permission Denied

16

Identity System Overview

Admin

Full household control.

Manage members, devices,

permissions, and schedules.

Devices

All devices

Platforms

Mobile: full management

TV: profile picker + dashboard

Member

Personal space & assigned devices.

Own comfort preferences.

View-only permission scope.

Devices

Assigned devices only

Platforms

Mobile: personal dashboard

TV: personalized view

Kid

Scheduled device access.

Admin-controlled permissions.

Age-appropriate scope.

Devices

Scheduled subset

Platforms

Mobile: limited dashboard

TV: permission-denied guidance

17

Outcomes

<30s

to join a household

Invited members completed the join flow via link in under 30 seconds. Zero participants needed full account registration.

← Registration barrier

4/4

found personal preferences

All tested non-admin members located and customized their personal comfort settings without navigating admin screens.

← No personal space

4/4

understood their permissions

After iteration, all non-admin members could accurately describe which devices they could and couldn't control, and who to ask for changes.

← Permission black box

18

Reflection

With More Time

Broader testing across household types

Tested only nuclear families. Need to validate with roommates, multigenerational homes, and temporary guests.

Permission template system

Per-device setup scales poorly past 10+ devices. Templates like "Kid-safe" or "Guest" would reduce admin overhead.

Longitudinal usage study

Comfort preferences are tied to routines that change seasonally. A diary study would reveal if the system adapts well over time.

Thank You

Kevin Gao

huawengao@gmail.com