The Music of a Smart Home app

Smart home control being in a nascent stage currently, what would be the evolution of Smart home apps be like? 

Here I present my thoughts inspired by the evolution of Music apps and how they have changed from playing selected files to recommending playlists based on activities and moods.

What are current smart home apps upto ?

Currently most of the smart home apps are mainly designed to control. We have to combine smart devices to create Automation or Scenes for controlling devices in a group 

Currently we have to do all the effort to make the "smart" device work for us. Is that really Smart?

But, What do we need smart devices for?

What else helps set ambiance? Music?

We use music to set up evening ambiance, when we party. We listen to music while we do work, when we study, when we work in the gym. Music helps us concentrate, enjoy with friends, lighten up the mood many more moods and ambiances.

Smart devices also help us with above.

How have the music apps evolved?

Lets take a look at music apps have evolved over time.

From helping us play single songs to suggesting playlists as per our activities. Today music apps have evolved to an extent we get suggestions like LAZY SUNDAYS, WORKOUT MOTIVATION, STRESS RELEASER.

Taking a closer look

SPOTIFY

APPLE MUSIC

GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC

YOUTUBE

What we understood?

Today’s music apps have become personalized, so can future SMART HOME APPS.

How to go about it?

Lets start designing

Directions

Introduction

Show what can be done when introducing the app. Introduce the concept of controlling smart devices, automations etc. so that users can explore the possibilities once they start using the app.

Understanding the user for personalized suggestions

Ask the user about what the most frequent activities and what they intend to do with the app. This information can be used for suggesting personalized cards later.

Using data available in other apps

Apps in the phone have data that can be used by the smart home app to personalize suggestions for smart device behavior.
The suggestions are shown in cards that are pushed to the user for applying to their devices.

Card layout

card title Highlights the activity name which sets the context.
Combinations are suggested based on the current devices and also show the preferred settings 

Card behaviour

Once the card is activated the device settings will be applied. Live status of the devices will be tracked and shown in the card.

PAGE LAYOUTS

Page layouts are designed to show suggested cards and give access to device level controls on the same page.
Users can also search for combination cards as per their requirement.

The Final Design