IKEA TRÅDFRI Smart Lighting Solution
Company IKEA of Sweden
Introduction Date April 1, 2017
Project Website https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/lighting/smart_lighting/
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Through IKEA TRÅDFRI, we are democratizing technology for the many people. Today, setting atmosphere with lights at home is a luxury for a few people. Just making a light dimmable can be a daunting task of finding an electrician or investing heavily in expensive and exclusive technology. The IKEA TRÅDFRI Smart Lighting solution is aimed at the many people by combining easy to use and very affordable solutions. It offers pre-paired starter kits with a simple wireless dimmer and a connected lightbulb which lets users convert any ordinary lamp to a dimmable, convenient light source. The user can then easily expand their system to a fully-integrated smart lighting experience through a gateway and an app. They can even control their lights with voice using Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant. IKEA is uniquely entering the smart home through a human angle rather than a technology angle, with the goal of improving life at home for the many people. We have the ambition to provide functional, inclusive, easy-to-use, and joyful solutions that add value to people’s everyday lives. To continue to be the leader in life at home, we are utilizing our curiosity and exploring solutions to everyday frustrations using new and available technology. We are making everyday life easier; saving time, space, money and frustrations for all users.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
The entry point to the system is a wireless dimmer that is as simple as it gets. It is just a puck with no moving parts which is essentially a traditional dimmer but entirely portable. It works using motion sensors (accelerometer and gyro) and comes pre-paired to a bulb. This intuitive interface gives comfort to the user with a familiar, yet magical experience. TRÅDFRI plays well with other systems, too. Thanks to a common standard, it can co-exist with other systems like Philips Hue, Samsung Smart Things, and more - so users do not get locked in to one system. It offers a variety of lighting sources for all kinds of sockets and more importantly integrated lighting for cabinets, kitchens and bookcases. The solution caters to a wide spectrum of users. It can be as basic as you are comfortable with or as advanced as you desire.
Who worked on the project?
IKEA of Sweden
View the project video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuxzA-h71H4
Illuminate: A Next-Generation Call Light
Why is this project worthy of an award?
The Illuminate Patient Response System is a next-generation call light system. It uses emerging and established technologies -- along with a completely re-imagined staffing model -- to radically improve response time and resolution of patient-initiated requests. With real-time location tracking and predictive capabilities, it allows us to balance workloads, honor patient preferences, anticipate needs, make better staff and training decisions, and improve satisfaction scores. Initially developed for skilled care facilities, Illuminate can improve any care environment (i.e. hospitals, AL communities). Call light requests run the gamut from urgent to “when you have a moment.” Delays are a major source of patient complaints and erode patient trust. At the same time, call lights are a major contributor to staff stress. Unexpected, on-demand requests create an unhealthy atmosphere that requires staff to share their focus and divide their attention between competing patient needs. It is the perfect storm for errors. Our solution solves for these problems by blending high tech with high touch. It includes: 1) creating an “intelligent” platform for communication, coordination, and quality assurance; 2) giving patients control over their schedule and access to real-time data to manage expectations; 3) giving staff more uninterrupted time with patients and a balanced process to assign work that respects skills, training, and availability. Illuminate is worthy of an Innovation by Design Award because: • It works. When Illuminate went “live” in Q3 of 2016, call response time fell by 20% initially and 50% in 6 months. Overall, call volume fell by 39% (due to reliable, fast responses and more scheduled activities). Patient satisfaction shot up 12.3%, with the highest gains in “communication with staff” and “timely follow-up.” As importantly, staff satisfaction also increased, with nurses citing “the ability to spend more uninterrupted time with my patients” as a key contributor. • It was created by an atypical team. Illuminate was created by Illuminate HC, a skilled care organization that is focused on modernizing nursing home care – a sector of healthcare that has been slow to evolve, invest and use technology. We established the industry first R&D lab where administrators, nurses, software engineers, UX experts and others collaborate to create new solutions to age-old issues. The patented Illuminate Patient Response System is our first application release and, perhaps the first application of this scale creating by a skilled care organization. • It helps an underserved group. Long-term patients are overlooked by most. Their conditions require them to live in a care environment for extended periods. Illuminate helps preserve their dignity, honor their preferences and gives them greater control over their daily schedules. That’s a big deal for people who have had to give up so much. • It helps care providers, too. Illuminate automatically balances workloads across a team and provides decision support analytics to improve staffing. The Illuminate response process ensures each care team member is working on activities most appropriate for their training and certification. This is tremendously important during a nursing shortage and key to recruitment and retention of quality staff.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
Though call light systems have been around for decades, and some device developers are making incremental changes to the alert technology, no one is truly rethinking and re-engineering the process like Illuminate HC. No other developers are examining the needs of all the “users” and elevating their experience. No one is transforming an old “alert” system into an open invitation for patients to regain control over their day. And, no one is as focused on strengthening predictive capabilities and raising the bar by integrating EMR systems and analyzing data from patient-driven request. To better understand how Illuminate works, please see our video demo. Below are some of the core components that make Illuminate stand apart. • Team Restructure: We created a CNA Supervisory position called the Quarterback. Typically, a QB has a set of rooms (a wing/a floor) to manage each shift. The QB responds to all call lights. They take care of the “easy” requests (about 30% are simple). All other requests are assigned by Illuminate QB App to the team member qualified and “most” available to respond. • RTLS: illuminate uses real time location tracking to accurately know where team members and critical shared equipment (like a lift) is located. • Illuminate QB Application & Device: The QB application is the heart of the system. When a patient initiates a request, the QB receives it via the app. The QB app is used to assign tasks, to communicate with team members, to monitor the status of all “open” requests, to signal the completion of the task and to alert the QB to confirm patient satisfaction. The QB app has a scheduling feature that allows patient to pre-set their meal/snack times, bathing time, therapy time, etc. Beyond that, the QB app processes RTLS data and stores staff and patient data. It “intelligently” assigns tasks based upon criteria (e.g. skill/certification required, patient needs, preferences, availability/proximity of staff, urgency). It also collects data (like type of request, origin of request, staff involved, time elapsed, etc.). This data can be used for real-time activities (managing patient expectations, checking to see if a team member needs help) and for planning and training purposes. QBs are on the move, so the preferred device for the QB application is a tablet. • Illuminate Staff Application & Mobile Devices: The Staff app facilitates communication and coordination between all team members (QB, nurses, CNAs, dietary, housekeeping). It is used to receive assigned tasks, to communicate status/progress, to request assistance, and to access basic patient information to assist with a task. The Staff app works on a range of devices, the optimal recommendation is a smart watch. • App with Patient-Centric Safety Features: We’ve also added a tablet outside each patient’s doorway. The app on that tablet integrates with the electronic medical record and provides staff with “just-in-time” information to ensure greater safety. Examples of information include dietary restrictions, allergies, two-person assist alerts, fall alerts, etc. To protect patient privacy, tablets remain dark until a staff person “codes” in, and automatically time-out.
Who worked on the project?
Yair Zuckerman & Harry Schayer, Illuminate HC Founders Wendy Jeppson, Chief Nursing Officer Nathan Robeson, Software Architect & Technology Solution Engineer Scott Sklar, Director Research & Development, licensed facility administrator Susan Hlava, Project Manager, licensed CNA Kevin O’Hare, Integration & Analytics Yosef Nathan, Vice President Business Development
View the project video: https://vimeo.com/269086920
Instant Results + Thumbtack rebrand
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Thumbtack is the easiest way to hire local professionals for any project -- from plumbing to catering, to personal training to math tutoring. Thumbtack recently launched a new customer experience called Instant Results, which leverages data from hundreds of thousand local services professionals across the country to match available and interested pros to customers, delivering quotes with real prices instantly, based on each unique job requested in real-time. This makes booking a local professional as easy as booking a flight on Kayak or shopping on Amazon, eliminating the leg work of calling local service professionals for services, availability and pricing. Customers can review Thumbtack’s unparalleled inventory of local services with adjustable preferences to view up to 30 customized results immediately. Instant Results streamlines the hiring process by removing the need to submit pages of information about their job up-front. Instead, customers can filter by price, location, tools, schedule, and more to zero in on the right professional for the job. Additionally, customers can also easily start a conversation using the Thumbtack messenger to answer any questions they have ahead of completing their booking, an added security to ensure the provider will be a perfect fit for the job. The new product builds on Thumbtack’s massive infrastructure overhaul last fall, which moved the marketplace from an inefficient and manual bidding process by pros to one with automatic bidding and real-time inventory matches. The Instant Results database comes from more than nine years of data on local professionals and 25 million customer requests in more than 1,000 different categories to ensure the professional will be a perfect fit for the job. This customized searchability benefits customers and pros by allowing both parties to communicate their needs and services more explicitly, leading to a more optimized and seamless hiring process.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
Thumbtack is grounded in its commitment to supporting small businesses, the backbone of America. Small businesses are already starting to see the difference Instant Results has made. Since launch, Thumbtack more than tripled the number of quotes pros send out and increased customer contact by up to 30 percent. Pros on Thumbtack are now budgeting millions of dollars on the platform every week, resulting in an excess of pros per customer for the first time in Thumbtack history, with revenue per pro up 84 percent. With Instant Results, matches between customers and pros are up 20 times and as queried, each visitor may be matched to up to 30 pros who can complete their project. As Thumbtack expands its product suite and offers for small businesses, its brand and identity have evolved in tandem. To celebrate the sense of accomplishment people feel after completing a task, the new iconography is inspired the new expression of their brand, “Life is a project.” In addition to the stripped-down tack logo, Thumbtack’s new range of secondary colors highlight the breadth of services and expanded possibilities. The new look is dynamic – with new typeface Mark for Thumbtack, simple blue color, and all new photography – and showcases the depth of their pros and the services they offer. All together, this rebrand maps back to Thumbtack’s target principles: ease, possibility, and accomplishment. Thumbtack wants to make finding the right local professional so easy users can accomplish everything on their to-do list.
Who worked on the project?
Thumbtack’s Product, Engineering, Design and Operations teams, including: Matteo Vianello, Creative Director Andrew Johnson, Lead Art Director Dina Lovinsky, Lead Copywriter Andrew Wendling, Senior Designer Theo Folinas, Product Designer Kimi Chen, Product Designer Alyssa Murray, Product Designer Rishvika Mehta, Content Strategist Josh Sassoon, Product Designer
View the project video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uk5ct96o5xl9mdh/What%20is%20Thumbtack%20copy.mp4?dl=0
Integrated Rolscreen
Why is this project worthy of an award?
At Pella, we define successful innovation as a product or solution that solves customer problems, is valuable to the company, and is considered disruptive within our category. In 2017, our Strategic Innovation team launched a research program to better understand how customers use their windows and doors and to uncover the areas where windows and doors fall short. This provided insights into the tradeoffs customers are forced to make with windows every day. For example, our customers love to open their windows to let in fresh air, listen to nature, and to blend their indoor and outdoor lives. However, they don’t want bugs entering their home, and they think windows and doors are a primary entry point for bugs. You’re probably thinking, isn’t that what screens are for? Yes, but they too have their shortcomings. Screens limit natural light, are difficult to clean and store, disrupt the view of the outdoors, and negatively impact the overall aesthetic of the home by covering beautifully-designed windows. Armed with these insights, we brainstormed, designed, and tested until we found a solution that provided both emotional and functional benefits to the user. I’d like to introduce Pella’s new Integrated Rolscreen® retractable screen, available on our Architect Series® Reserve(TM) double- and single-hung windows. Our new Integrated Rolscreen eliminates age-old screen trade-offs for our customers. When the window is closed, no screen is visible—improving the exterior appearance of a home and providing our customers with an unobstructed view. When the window is opened to let in fresh air and connect with the outdoors, the screen appears between the sash and the frame with ease. The screen automatically retracts back into the frame when the window is closed again. Our customers love the flexibility of a double-hung window that allows them to open the top sash, the bottom sash, or both, so our screen seamlessly appears at both the top and the bottom of the window. Through rounds of ideation, development, and user testing, our team designed our new Integrated Rolscreen so customers don’t need to compromise on aesthetics, energy efficiency, natural light, ease of use, or the comfort of their perfectly beautiful home.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
There were several design challenges the team had to keep in mind as we worked to bring this feature to market. Our first and most critical design requirement was that the window aesthetic and proportions could not be modified. Our Architect Series Reserve windows are designed to meet some of the strictest guidelines for historical authenticity. Knowing we were limited on space, we developed a compact, one-inch Rolscreen and hid the integrated screen mechanisms within the existing frame of the window. The second design challenge we had to consider was that the screen had to help keep bugs out. Customers hate bugs, and our research told us they are not willing to compromise, expecting our screen to work as well as a common flat screen. We developed a secure, hidden edge system to keep the screen taut and help prevent bugs from traveling around the screen perimeter. Our new screen design also created a challenge at the checkrail (the area where the two sashes meet), because bugs could sneak through when the window was open. After various brainstorming sessions, prototypes, and testing of several bug-blocking concepts, we ultimately found an effective bristle solution our customers preferred without detracting from the window aesthetics. For our final design challenge, we had to ensure the user interaction was simple and seamless, both when the screen was in use or when hidden out of sight. To say it lightly, we were obsessed with providing a superior user experience, even with other features in the window. For example, Pella has an intuitive tilting feature that allows our customers to clean the outside of their windows from the inside of their home. Our new screen is designed to automatically disengage and retract as soon as the sash is tilted for cleaning. To re-attach the screen, the user simply closes the sash and the screen is automatically re-engaged for normal use. By solving these three design challenges and addressing a myriad of other meticulous details, the Integrated Rolscreen provides true value and innovation to the Pella customer. No longer do they have to compromise form for function and look through a screen that disrupts their view, blocks natural light, or hides their windows. Instead, Pella’s windows will continue to have an effective screen while they show off the beauty of architecture and design. As a Pella Integrated Rolscreen team member, I’m proud to say this innovation was accomplished by putting the customer at the center of every decision, making the user experience simpler, more enjoyable, and more beautiful than ever before.
Who worked on the project?
Jenn Tuetken - Sr. Industrial Designer; Brian Kolb - Principal Engineer; Evan Vande Haar - Sr. Engineering Tech Leader; Jon Hoogland - Sr. Engineering Tech Leader; Stephanie Sylvester - Product Specialist; Scot Miller - Principal Engineer; Randy Black - Sr. Engineering Tech Leader; Steve Lauritsen - Sr. Engineering Tech Leader;
View the project video: https://vimeo.com/269099322 password: Pella
Intercom’s Business Messenger - Powering More than Chat & Helping Businesses Grow
Company Intercom
Introduction Date April 24, 2018
Project Website https://www.intercom.com/messenger https://blog.intercom.com/product-thinking-behind-messenger-home/
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Intercom has reimagined what a messenger is with its new business messenger, which helps companies grow by powering more than just chat. Intercom’s new messenger helps sales, marketing, and support teams engage with customers in a personal and expressive way. The Messenger is groundbreaking in three main ways. Originality - First Business Messenger to Go Beyond Chat Messengers have been the same basic inbox or chat view with two-panel layout for years. There’s a lot of innovation happening in the conversation view and around the conversation-based apps, but none of the innovation is focused on more than chat. This is in part due to the fact that it’s really difficult to nail down a lot of these experiences in-messenger from a UX perspective. Our new Messenger represents the first time a team has successfully built a messenger that powers functionality beyond chat or conversations and lets users do things like have a Google Hangouts video call, or make a payment through Stripe, in the Messenger. Custom Functionality + UX We’ve built a distinct home screen and chat app that let companies customize their Messenger with apps that serve the specific purpose that they need- whether that’s giving visitors the ability to schedule a demo, search help articles for a quick answer, sign up for a newsletter, or start a conversation. When building this new experience, one of the biggest UX challenges was making sure that all of the new apps felt at home within the Messenger. For example, the Article Search app gives visitors an alternative to waiting for a team reply by searching through and reading help articles with seamless transitions within the Messenger. The nuanced details in animation and navigation make it really easy for visitors to recognize and use the Messenger apps. It’s functional and intuitive, creating a sense of high design without being overbearing or heavy handed. The second big UX challenge was creating a Messenger that sits seamlessly on other companies’ websites and felt like their own, but keeping a distinct consistency that differentiates Intercom from other messengers. To do that, we gave them the tools to add their company logo, customize the greeting and add secondary colors to better match their brand, while maintaining the integrity and recognizable silhouette of Intercom. From the information hierarchy, to the customization tools for teams, to the specific apps we included, every inch of the Messenger is custom-built for individual needs. Business Impact The new Intercom Messenger has opened the door to make business messenger more relevant to a variety of use cases, customizing what a messenger does and not just how it looks. The flexibility makes it easier and more time efficient for businesses to transition to using a messenger for marketing, sales and support. We’ve also opened the platform for third-party development. We believe the Intercom Messenger represents a paradigm-shift for business messengers. It’s no longer just about conversations, it’s about enabling your customers to get their jobs done more quickly, before they even start a conversation.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
Messaging has exploded in recent years as a communication channel for the personal, business and all other interactions in our lives. Intercom invented in-app messaging in 2011 and now we’ve designed the only messenger truly built for businesses. Messenger is personal and intimate, but hasn’t always seemed scalable for a business use case. It’s difficult to manage and maintain a great experience through messenger when you have thousands or millions of website visitors. Intercom’s Messenger gives internet companies the personal touch that messenger offers, but at scale, to help them grow and retain their customer base. We’ve seen strong adoption of the new Messenger since we launched in April and great response from end-users interacting with the Messenger. Article search and self-service has increased within the messenger. Almost half of our customers have upgraded to the new Messenger and have been eager to add apps and customize their home screen. Here’s how some of our customers responded: “YES YES YES YES YES YES YES; A THOUSAND TIMES YES; Great work with the update guys” “By the way I love the new messenger this is soo awesome!! 😍” “I'm taking a look at the new messenger, amazing!” Since we launched, we’ve also seen a lot of interest in the platform. More than 500 developers and teams have signed up for our platform Beta and we can’t wait to see what they build.
Who worked on the project?
Paul Adams, VP of Product at Intercom Emmet Connolly, Director of Product Design Brian Donohue, Director of Product Management And many others on the Intercom Team
View the project video: https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/mtw5vdt2i1?videoFoam=true&autoPlay=true&videoQuality=hd-only
