ThermoSmart, All About Design and User Experience

When it comes to designing smart home devices, an alternative to NEST has been brought to our attention. A great example of what the Internet of Things can bring to the table, ThemoSmart is a Wi-Fi-enabled smart thermostat could just be the answer to the privacy concerns raised by Google’s NEST.

ThermoSmart

Founded in December 2011 by Hans Kouwenhoven, ThermoSmart came about due to his frustration that the market lacked beautiful and user-friendly thermostats. It took a few years before the Arnhem (Netherlands) based start-up decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign on crowdfunding platform OnePlanetCrowd. They set out to raise 25,000 euros, but instead they raised just over 42,000 euros.

ThermoSmart, Dutch Design Thinking

Described by Hans as ‘Mooi en makkelijk’, which translates to ‘beautiful and easy’, I was curious to find out more about the product, so I arranged a sit-down with the CEO himself. As he explained the whole process and I quickly found out that Hans’ story started way before Nest Labs had released their first generation ‘Nest Learning Thermostat’. He admitted; “When we were starting our journey early 2011 we haven’t even heard of Tony Fadell’s Nest Labs and I think that is a good thing. It created a situation where we independently build our ThermoSmart from the ground up, reaching a healthy level of Dutch design thinking based on minimalism and intuitive user interfaces.” As Han’s continued to share, I was inspired by his level of innovation.

Design Thinking

Compatible with, for example IFTTT and Amazon Echo, controllable from your Apple Watch, the smart home device comes with an app that helps you control the temperature in your home and gain insight about the temperature in the house. Besides using the Apple Watch, which is great to use when you’re not at home, the best user experience comes with the advanced app that you can use on the iPhone and Android devices. There are separate apps for iPad or any Android tablets.

ThermoSmart

The business model of ThemoSmart additionally consists of the ability for its customers to manually customize the ThermoArt skins to add some personal taste to the device so that it matches your interior. On the tech side the smart Wi-fi thermostat, with OpenTherm support, works with all types of heating systems that are used in the UK. The ThermoSmart is available in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK for respectively €249, – / £199.-

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FashionTech Consultant, Freethinking Opportunist Hero, Aspiring to Inspire. Wearobot Groupie with a Tech for Passion. Contributed to Wired.com. Founder of WearableGuru.com Founding Managing Editor FashNerd.com