Chiara Gattuso

Chiara came to Milan to pursue her dreams, to complete her studies at Politecnico di Milano and become a product designer. Curious by nature, her interests touch different topics, discovering and overlooking all that will be the world of the future.The study of physics, Artificial Intelligence and Digital world are the key points of her study path begun in Palermo. Since 2015 she writes for the webzine Design Street.

I-Do. Design of a phygital interface for smart homes.

Intelligent home automation, better known as Smart Home, is the set of systems and services that allow the users to control their home using intelligent, sensor-based and internet-based objects. Today’s domotics allow to define contexts that offer physical and psychic well-being, because one of the first goals is to create comfortable spaces that meet some of the primary daily needs. There are so many future visions, often provocative, about how the user will use and interfere with their private space. At the same time, several research shows how designing smart home objects does not consider the actual experience of users, taking into account technological advancements rather than the way they communicate with users in the daily life. This work aims to find a solution to the main issues presented by users who approach the home automation industry, such as the simplification of interfaces and the need to create different interactions. Starting from an analysis of current user behaviors, we have come up with the definition of an innovative smart home control system, which takes the user’s experience first and proposes a new way of interfacing with technologies. Thus, the main functions that allow to manage the home have been analyzed, simplifying its control interactions, and offering an innovative phygital interface. This results in an unpublished digital product that simplifies and amplifies relationships and communications with the user, a kind of home helper who seeks to establish a different and natural relationship between people and smart objects or robots who manage today’s home.