Product Design For a World Class Leader In Intelligent Lighting

Instinctools is praised by its customers for a methodology-agnostic approach and the ability to adjust to any client’s requirements. In the case of Helvar, the product owner insisted on daily syncs to ensure all the stakeholders and the design team were kept in the loop. 

We readily met this condition and worked in small iterations providing the client with fully functional interactive prototypes to address any concerns straight away and ensure the final design would pass the validation seamlessly. Speaking about the amount of work we’ve carried out, our design team prepared 40+ layouts in InVision.

During the project setup, we discussed the initial design concept the client had beforehand and determined the app’s usage contexts: 

• Boardrooms and a reception area in an office building
• Patient rooms and a reception area in a hospital
• Suites and a reception area in a hotel or cruise ship

As Helvar's engineers were supposed to create UI files in the web application and then send them to the Android app where end users could operate with them, we started with the web solution. 

At this stage, we reviewed the groundwork the client has done before reaching out to *instinctools.
For instance, they’d already had early design concepts based on the design of their other product — Illustris.

The client wanted to reuse the logic of the existing solution when crafting a future-proof digital touch panel with top-notch UX.

Implementing a building plan was a prerequisite for providing an easy-to-grasp lighting control. Because of this, we had to figure out the best way to put it in the application’s interface. At first, our team discussed making a detailed plan for the whole building. 

Nonetheless, such an over-elaborate scheme required more time, effort, and investment from the development standpoint. So we devised a more sleek solution and suggested organizing a building into folders by floor and individual room with UI files for each locale.

Here is an illustration of how the idea of folders was implemented at the wireframing stage.

Next, we moved to designing solution components – UI manager and UI editor.

We had to provide Helvar’s employees and end users of the lighting solution with clear and customizable digital tools. So our team came up with the idea of a UI Manager and UI Editor. But while we could leverage Helvar’s existing products, such as Illustris and the 924 touch panel for the Editor, the UI Manager had to be designed from scratch.

The UI Manager is a part of the web application for engineers where Helvar’s staff creates a folder structure corresponding to a real building.

We suggested adding a Preview area so that engineers could easily pick a theme that would fit in with the interior of a particular room.

The UI Editor is a part of the Android application targeted at end users (office workers, hospital patients, tourists in hotel rooms, etc.). Its interface had to remain clear and concise despite the immense number of functions it provides users with. 

The trickiest part of working on the UI Editor’s design was that it had to be a fully customizable tool. We made it possible for users to edit, modify, and change everything, from the general style of the controller, the background, and font styles to fine-tuning each button’s function and look.

We designed software with unlimited customization options to satisfy the desire of Helvar’s clients for stronger brand awareness. For instance, despite providing a plethora of in-built templates that cover various usage scenarios, we went the extra mile to bring boundless customization opportunities to users.

With a tablet in each room, users can not only create their unique theme (e.g., in the hotel colors and with its logo) but also put any buttons needed on the tablet screen and bind functions to them in the way they find the most convenient setup.

Here is a detailed video presentation of the final product