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Google Home ‘Energy Savvy’ Features

Feature Add on: Solving for Energy Usage Consciousness and Optimization

Context

Google Home’s ‘Energy Savvy’ redesign is for better understanding of power usage and carbon footprint per household.

It aims to help individual users with smart insights related to their energy usage with the help of local data, usage patterns and AI step ins.

Google Home’s ‘Energy Savvy’ redesign is for better understanding of power usage and carbon footprint per household.

It aims to help individual users with smart insights related to their energy usage with the help of local data, usage patterns and AI step ins.

Role

Industry

Tools

Duration

Project type

Feature add ons, user experience research

Interaction Design, Visual Design, Research Collaborator

Lifestyle, automation

Figma, Fig Jam, Gmeet, Notion

2 Weeks

Understanding the problem

Over the past two decades, global energy demand has nearly doubled. Talking about India, while industrial energy consumption dominates, residential energy consumption has been increasing at a rate of 10% per year. These spikes are driven by urbanization, population growth and the addition of digitization layer for nearly all utilities.

31% of India’s total electricity consumption comes from homes (as of 2024). These means that residential energy use is no longer a background issue, it’s front and center in climate, cost, and infrastructure debates.

At grassroot level, regulating household consumption helps get a control over the environmental effects as well as hedging household resources from being overspent on energy costs - Users want to reduce their carbon footprint or energy bills, but don’t know how much, where, or when.

View full Case Study

Research Highlights

Google Home’s ‘Energy Savvy’ redesign is for better understanding of power usage and carbon footprint per household.

It aims to help individual users with smart insights related to their energy usage with the help of local data, usage patterns and AI step ins.

Google Home’s ‘Energy Savvy’ redesign is for better understanding of power usage and carbon footprint per household.

It aims to help individual users with smart insights related to their energy usage with the help of local data, usage patterns and AI step ins.

No Carbon Feedback

The system does not show the carbon impact associated with electricity usage which is one of the core causes of carbon emissions, leaving users unaware of the environmental impact of their energy consumption and skipping on opportunities for eco-conscious behavior.

No Carbon Feedback

Hard to Compare Usage

Consumption data is presented in a scattered way without easy comparison across devices, time periods, or usage patterns, making it difficult for users to understand whether their energy use is high or low.

No Real-Time Usage

Google Home does not provide continuous, specific monitoring of energy consumption per device, preventing users from seeing the immediate impact of their actions and making timely adjustments to save energy.

No Real-Time Usage

Device Inefficiency

Google Home cannot identify or flag devices that consume unusually high amounts of energy, so users may unknowingly continue using inefficient appliances, resulting in wasted energy and higher costs.

Lack of Trends

Google Home provides some instances of usage but lacks historical data analysis or insights, limiting users’ ability to understand long-term patterns and optimize energy consumption proactively.

Lack of Trends

Google Home provides some instances of usage but lacks historical data analysis or insights, limiting users’ ability to understand long-term patterns and optimize energy consumption proactively.

Thinking in systems

Focus Points

These insights can be used to implement the design solutions in a phased manner - with understanding the context of the system components relativity better, aspects of google home can be reimagined to fill these gaps in the system and build a sustainable and supportive environment of energy usage and monitoring.

Moving forward with the proposed solutions 'Ensuring Awareness, bridging the gap between known information and clear communication.'

Understanding Users and Their Needs

User Needs

Design features and functionality

Resource matching

Integrate a database of relevant resources for collecting energy usage data.

Based on User patterns and household needs, inform and suggest users about their patterns and next steps.

Resource matching

Integrate a database of relevant resources for collecting energy usage data.

Based on User patterns and household needs, inform and suggest users about their patterns and next steps.

AI functionality

Utilize Gemini algorithm to read and analyze user patterns and existing local data.

Generate suggestions for improvement, considering factors like actionability and approach.

Smart Plug functionality

Utilize data from individual devices using smart plugs for appliances which need to be monitored.

extract relevant data and offer it to the user in a simple, interpretable form.

Smart Plug functionality

Utilize data from individual devices using smart plugs for appliances which need to be monitored.

extract relevant data and offer it to the user in a simple, interpretable form.

Design Considerations

Simple and Intuitive interface, catering to users with varied needs and interests.

Visually amicable with Google home’s present setup.

easy accessibility to add-ons, facilitating convenient adoption.

Design Solution

A feature add-on for evaluating energy usage patterns in

Goggle Home.

A feature add-on for evaluating energy usage patterns in Goggle Home.

New Feature Flow

Data Flow Diagram

Level 0

Level 01

Interface Flow

Onboarding Flow

‘Energy Savvy Google home’, introduced as an update, gets users warmed up about the new features. Once the user is updated and setup, they can access energy usage insights right when they open the application.

Favorites and Devices

Addition of a quick energy usage information and AI assisted insight into recommended actions. Acts as an overview on the favorites page. Overview of each device connected to the ecosystem paired with quick glance energy insights for the user to be at par with their usage.

Device reading and device History

Device settings lead to a detailed history of the device to provide deeper insights into device usage data. User can access daily, weekly, monthly and yearly data based on initial google home connectivity.

Settings and History

Along with easy to understand device history data, user can access the same details about each connected device.

Notifications and Nudges

Pop up reminders when unusual activity is detected to motivate user to take immediate action and notifications to nudge user about unusual activity of devices or just to remind them about eco choices.

Testing, Iterations and possibilities

The prototype was tested with 6 representative users to see how friendly the features are. The test was conducted in person where specific tasks were provided where we observed users navigation through;

Navigation to device energy insights.

Navigation to device history.

A few iterations in the interface and some elements were updated to incorporate the changes. Overall user experience was successful and any major changes were not required at this stage of testing.

Navigation to device energy insights. Navigation to device history.

A few iterations in the interface and some elements were updated to incorporate the changes. Overall user experience was successful and any major changes were not required at this stage of testing.

What did I learn?

What began as a minor sneak peak into people’s energy habits

with Google home evolved into a bunch of updates and a new lens for looking at how people interact with their smart homes and what more do they require. While the scope of study in terms of Google home and other smart homes is very wide, through this project I developed a good understanding of dealing with one aspect of a wider system and the blended layers of the existing and potential features.

To sum it up, it’s was a great learning experience with Krisha Koradia. Special thanks to Ameer and Pratham for providing clarity at various junctions.

What began as a minor sneak peak into people’s energy habits

To sum it up, it’s was a great learning experience with Krisha Koradia. Special thanks to Ameer and Pratham for providing clarity at various junctions.

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for creators

Let’s build experiences together.

Get in touch

khushi.flipsidesign@gmail.com

For the love of design

2019 - Present

Let’s build experiences together.

Get in touch

khushi.flipsidesign@gmail.com

For the love of design

2019 - Present

Let’s build experiences together.

Get in touch

khushi.flipsidesign@gmail.com

For the love of design

2019 - Present