2006 | Industrial Designer | Cambridge Design PartnershipNavetas were a start-up in the early days of smart meters, whose technology could track the power use of individual appliances around the home. Their home display needed to convey a lot of complex information effectively, and all using a small, fixed-segment LCD screen.
Background
I was initially brought on as an industrial designer for this project, tasked with designing Navetas’ new hardware - an in-home display, a ‘hub’ device to be installed in a meter cupboard, and a series of small sensors for detecting gas and electricity use.
However, it quickly became apparent that the main challenge was creating the in-home display’s interface. At a time when smart energy meters were in their infancy and standards not established, this device needed to communicate gas and electricity use in a simply, visual manner - including the consumption of individual appliances like fridges and washing machines. That the display was segmented LCD only furthered the challenge.
This was my first ‘UX’ project at a time when the term was still not in common use. I so enjoyed the design thinking required here, that it sparked a change in my career from industrial into digital product design.
Work & Outcomes
In parallel to the industrial design work I did on the physical devices, I learned the fundamentals of what would soon become ‘UX’ design through close collaboration with researchers and software engineers.
I explored a wide range of data visualisation options for the interface as sketches, focusing on how to communicate in a clear visual style that could be understood at a glance from across the room. Guided via several rounds of client workshops, I moved to Illustrator to mock-up the visuals in high fidelity, whilst also exploring designs for the company’s main site.
Working in-person with hardware and software engineers, we prototyped using off-the-shelf fixed-segment LCD screens, before a low-volume display prototype allowed us move into robust in-person testing. Unlike software-only projects, we faced a real design freeze at the point the display needed to be manufactured, which - with no possibility of future updates - required us to be certain we had the design correct as early as possible.
The Navetas product would later be bought by British Gas.
