Understanding Controls

Controls are the building blocks of interaction. They stand between the user and the system.
To understand controls, I took apart a fidget cube, which has a great variety of common controls, to understand the mechanism.

Ideation

For this exercise, I was asked to redesign a thermostat. It was really hard after seeing Nest, a popular modern thermostat, to come up with a thermostat design that is elegant and easy to use.
During ideation, I focused on the following aspects of a thermostat:
End user:
_Why does the users use a thermostat?
_How precise do the users want to change the variables?
_What are some of the associations or metaphors of “temperature”
Product:
_What functions should it have?
_What variables does it change?
_What kind of emotional influence do these metaphors have?

Sketching

I started to sketch out some ideas, and eventually I chose the one boxed in yellow. I chose this design because I like that its simple design yet allows playful and diverse interactions.

Interaction Prototype

These are the primary ways user can interact with the thermostat:

For my second iteration, I switched out the origami linkage with a phone support. This enables the platform to be rotated.

UI Prototype

I prototyped the interface of the thermostat using Sketch. By adding different color gradient and symbols, I can guide through the possible ways of interacting with the simple and playful platform.