Honeywell Home

The Honeywell Home mobile app is the primary consumer-facing smart home platform for Honeywell. First launched in 2014 as “Honeywell Lyric”, the app aspired to be the next-gen smart home platform for Honeywell. But, at launch, it only supported a single thermostat and was available in the U.S. only.

When I started in late 2014, the app and thermostat had just launched with significant bugs, UX issues and resulting poor reviews. My job was to help right the ship, build out the platform, expand globally, raise design quality, and deliver a ‘5-star’ user experience in the app. By 2018, the app was available in over 16 countries, supported over 10 different devices, had multiple third-party integrations, was rebranded “Honeywell Home”, and had 4.6 stars in the App Store.

My role
Over a four-year period, I led design and creative direction for the app, and helped shape the end-to-end brand experience for the platform – from marketing and sales, through installation, ongoing use and customer support. Working closely with executives, product managers and engineering leaders, we supported multiple product launches across North America and Europe.

HIghlights

• Grew registered users from low 100’s to over 1 million

• Improved App Store ratings from below 2 stars to above 4.5 stars

• Built a dedicated app design team across US and India development centers

• Shaped design/dev process and roadmap priorities with marketing and engineering leaders

In addition, I led end-to-end UX design and delivery for many “Honeywell Home” branded products including: Smart Home Security; Water Leak and Freeze Detector; T5, T9 and T10 Smart Thermostats; M5 Classic and M5 Plus Smart Thermostats.

User Research & Testing

I ensured user research was fully integrated and essential to how we worked. Design researchers and Usability/Human Factors specialists were key members of the overall design group, embedded with the app design team and on every hardware design/dev project. I drove an end-to-end customer journey approach and mindset across the teams, with our partners and stakeholders. We conducted 100’s of customer sessions every year at customer’s homes, offices, in our usability lab and remotely using tools like usertesting.com.

 Honeywell Home Design System

Rebranding to “Honeywell Home” started with the mobile app but quickly extended into a full end-to-end update across hardware user interface, industrial design, packaging and printed literature, as well as a digital and print marketing and advertising.

Consumer Electronics Show 2018

The app was the centerpiece of Honeywell’s 2018 CES booth, for the first time featuring products across the full range of the Honeywell comfort, security and awareness portfolios all supported by a single app. The big vision was at last realized. This moment also marked my transition into a new role, passing the torch for Honeywell Home to a new design leader coming up the ranks.