Also, working physical interfaces for everything where possible.
Lights that come on auto-magically are great, low light after bed time, that shuts itself off after you stumble back to bed, etc.
But you also need to allow overrides, like someone double taps the lights on you override the automations for an hour or two to handle corner cases like when your 6 year old pukes all over the hall and bathroom and you need cleaning light not stumbling light.
Also, light switches and lamps should work like light switches and lamps for guests, because these interfaces aren’t bad, they work, well even.
I completely agree. The most common “complaint” from guests in my old home was that the lights weren’t turning on. They had turned it down to 0 by holding the button so clicking it was toggling between OFF and 0. Not really a smart home issue but it made me realize that the new system I’m speccing out needs to be invisible - it’s a priority that things need to work “traditionally”
I will have a few NSPanels for the bonus controls (HVAC and audio mostly) but the lights need to make sense to a layman - even without enabling a guest mode.
Also, working physical interfaces for everything where possible.
Lights that come on auto-magically are great, low light after bed time, that shuts itself off after you stumble back to bed, etc.
But you also need to allow overrides, like someone double taps the lights on you override the automations for an hour or two to handle corner cases like when your 6 year old pukes all over the hall and bathroom and you need cleaning light not stumbling light.
Also, light switches and lamps should work like light switches and lamps for guests, because these interfaces aren’t bad, they work, well even.
I completely agree. The most common “complaint” from guests in my old home was that the lights weren’t turning on. They had turned it down to 0 by holding the button so clicking it was toggling between OFF and 0. Not really a smart home issue but it made me realize that the new system I’m speccing out needs to be invisible - it’s a priority that things need to work “traditionally”
I will have a few NSPanels for the bonus controls (HVAC and audio mostly) but the lights need to make sense to a layman - even without enabling a guest mode.