TIME
April 2018 - May 2018
OVERVIEW
Sephyr is a solution to help you get away from dust allergy. Now, you can do more with the air purifier remotely. It also provides more information that fit your needs when dealing with the dust allergy.
ROLE
UI/UX Designer
TEAM
1 UI/UX Designer
1 Industrial Designer
Process Deck
INSPIRATION
Allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S.
Allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S, and the most common one around me is dust allergy. Most of my family and friends are plagued by dust allergy. In order to help them improve their life qualities, I started to brainstorm solutions involved in producing an actual product or a phone application.
PROBLEM
How might we get away from dust allergy?
Dust mites are one of the most common indoor allergens. Generally, vacuuming and dusting are not enough to remove dust mites. Cleaning up the room and wash bed linens regularly are also important in-house habits. Additionally, as a patient, having an air purifier is essential. However, they may not notice the need to turn it on until they start sneezing.
SOLUTION
Sephyr Application
An application can be a great solution to solve the problem. Firstly, the application allows users to control their air purifier remotely. Then, we can provide more information to help their allergy problems, such as air quality tracking or notifications. Therefore, I started designing an air purifier application.
Statistic
Dust mites thrive in temperatures of 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 25 degrees Celsius).
They also like humidity levels of 70 to 80 percent. There are at least 13 species of mites.
They feed mainly on the tiny flakes of human skin that people shed each day.
Goals of Product
REMOTE CONTROL
Users are able to turn on/off the air purifier without staying in the room.
ALLERGY/AQI TRACKING
User condition and Real-time air quality tracking help the application learn more about the user and give the best advice to them.
SCHEDULE NOTIFICATION
Based on the air quality, the application will send the notifications if users need to clean up the room or change bed linens.
AIR PURIFIER FRAGRANCE
Users can change the fragrance of the air purifier to feel more comfortable staying in their rooms.
COMPETITORS
I did research about two different direction competitors, Web MD Allergy and Mi Air Purifier. For this project, my goal is to combine the advantages of these applications.
Pros
• A wealth of allergy information
• Offers a personalized allergy and weather forecast
• Extensive library of allergy articles and videos
Cons
• Interface is overcrowded
• No connection with the air purifier
Pros
• Remote controls the air purifier
• Real-time air monitoring
• Multiple modes for users
Cons
• PM2.5 is provided but does not indicate level of air quality
• Focus on air quality but not allergy problems
TARGET AUDIENCE
People with dust allergy
The target audience are between ages 18-35, who have their own room, and care about their dust allergies.
PERSONAS
Based on the researches and user needs, I created three personas for different user cases.
David Brown
28
Sunnyvale, CA
Product Designer
About
David is a product designer working at a tech company and lives alone in Sunnyvale. He has a heavy dust allergy, so he always needs to turn on the air purifier when he feels he wants to sneeze.
Needs
Even though he has an air purifier, his dust allergy still bothers him because he can’t turn on the air purifier all day long. Therefore, he is looking for a solution to solve this problem.
Keywords
Single; Long working hours; Heavy dust allergy
Jessica Mitchell
33
New York, NY
Sales Director
About
Jessica is a sales director working at a marketing company in New York. She has two children, and both of them have dust allergy problem, so she cares about the air quality and often cleans up the house.
Needs
She needs an app to show the current air quality and remind her if she needs to clean up the room or change bed linens.
Keywords
Family; Notification; Air quality info
Vivian Kao
21
San Francisco, CA
College Student
About
Vivian is a college student who is studying in San Francisco. These days, poor air quality often happens in the Bay Area, so Vivian is concern about her dust allergy problem and health issues.
Needs
She wants an air purifier that not only freshens up the air but also provides indoor and outdoor air qualities. Additionally, she wants that product can be remotely controlled so that it helps filter the air before she arrives home.
Keywords
Health issue; Remote contorl; Indoor & Outdoor air quality
STORYBOARD
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
SKETCHES
WIREFRAMES
After I sketched out the basic layout, I started to design the user flows with low-fidelity wireframes.
Task 1 - Login and Control Panel
David is a new user of Sephyr. He wants to connect his air purifier to the application, go though the introduction and turn his air purifier on remotely.
1 - 1 Log in
1 - 2 Intro 1
1 - 3 Intro 2
1 - 4 Condition
1 - 5 Device on
1 - 6 Completed
Task 2 - Notification and Schedule
After getting the notification for room cleaning from the app, Jessica cleans up her room. Then she checks the next schedule of room cleaning. However, she already has a plan on the scheduled date, so she edits it to the next day.
2 - 1 Notification
2 - 2 Condition
2 - 3 Click finish
2 - 4 Click edit
2 - 5 Editing
2 - 6 Done edit
Task 3 - Air Quality and Mode
Vivian is on her way back home. She opens the Sephyr application check the current air quality in Tracker page. Then, she decides to turn on the air purifier with the high-speed mode to fresh the air before she arrives home.
3 - 1 Condition
3 - 2 Go Tracker
3 - 3 Go Device
3 - 4 Device on
3 - 5 Mode on
3 - 6 Completed
USABILITY TESTING
I ran a usability testing with two target users because both of them have dust allergy issues. They did the testing with low-fidelity wireframes and gave me some valuable feedback.
Device Page
Some testers said that they want to change the air fragrance on this page, so the "more" icon appears on the right-top side. Then, users also curious about the air quality range. Therefore, the new interface shows up the range for current air quality as well.
Tracker Page
For the old version, Device page and Tracker page provided some similar information about the air quality. Thus, the new version reduces this problem and gives users a better understanding of the current outdoor air quality details.
Schedule Page
Schedule page was kind of confused the testers because it had limited information. Based on their feedback, the new Schedule page produces a count-down bar to the next cleaning day to help users easier find out the current progress.
Final Design
Log In & Introduction
The new user can log in the application with his/her air purifier ID and password. Then, he/she will need to go through the application introduction of some main functions.
Control Panel
On this page, the user can remotely control his/her air purifier. It shows the current AQI number and the air quality condition. The user can decide to turn on/off the device or modes with all the information.
Tracker & Forecast
We will track the user’s condition every day when he/she opens the application to receive data and give the best advise. Also, the user can check the current outdoor air quality details and hourly forecast on the tracker page.
Room Cleaning & Bed Linens
Based on the dust allergy condition feedback from the user, we will advise the best time period for he/she to clean up the room or change the bed linens. He/She can also edit the schedule to fit the needs and get notifications.
Fragrance & Air Filter
In Settings, the user can check does the air purifier connect successfully. Then, he/she will able to change the device fragrance smell or check the air filter status if he/she goes into the air purifier setting.
PRODUCT DESIGN
Air Purifier
I also designed the Sephyr Air Purifier in this case study. On the surface, you can easily see the power and mode controls. Moreover, the concept of this product is that I want it to be approachable for users to understand the current air quality.
STYLE GUIDE
Moodboard
REFLECTION
Key takeaways from this project
I really enjoyed the design process of this case study. Firstly, the topic that I chose is highly related to my daily life, so I can see a lot of opportunities in the project. Optimizing all aspects of information, such as researches, wireframes, and user testing, gave me a great chance to improve my design thinking skills. Finally, designing both the application and product expanded my understanding of the connection between hardware and software. To sum up, I would like to push this project further in hopes that this product will be released on the market in the near future.
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