EcoFlow

An IoT device that empowers homeowners to make smarter choices about water usage in their homes.

Background

EcoFlow is an IoT device that was developed for the 2019 Alaska Airlines Environmental Challenge (EIC). Our team developed a physical product that can easily be installed in a home pipe system. I worked on the accompanying app which is the primary way for homeowners to interact with the system.

Design Challenge

1) Information on monthly water bills is difficult to digest

2) Pipe bursts are tough to anticipate and can cause tremendous water waste and property damage

The Solution

The EcoFlow app visually displays information being gathered by the physical device to inform homeowners about health of their pipe system and the consumption of water in their home.

How does it work?

Metrics Tracker
Indicator colors give provide an easy way to check the health of the pipe system. For each metric, users can view the data’s trends, average, and current value.

Usage Breakdown
Homeowners can view how water consumption is distributed in their household. The information allows them to pinpoint places of inefficiency or water waste.

Design Approach

Before ideation, the team and I discussed our goals for the app and how it would work alongside with the physical device. In a nutshell, our goals were:

• Present the data so it is easy for average homeowners to understand

• Educate users about the health of their pipe system

• Enable users to make informed decisions about their water usage

Personas

Based on our product’s function, we created two personas to represent a portion of our target demographics.

Avoiding pipe bursts

All three metrics are highly variable depending on activity in the home and environmental conditions. Pipes are most susceptible to burst when any of the metrics reach too great of an extreme for the pipes to withstand. To highlight risk areas and general trends in the water system, I displayed data with a line graph that can be toggled between month, week, and day timelines, so users can understand the trends of their water system. Risk areas are shown by a red dashed area.

Monitoring water usage

For homeowners that want to conserve water, usage totals from specific rooms and water fixtures give them an opportunity to look for wastefulness and inefficiency.

To display water usage, I used a stack bar chart that shows overall usage totals that break down into usage for individual fixtures. Beneath the chart, individual fixtures are listed with their average usage totals. With this information, users are better informed about how water is distributed in their homes, and where there could be opportunities for water conservation.