DEMOCRATIC DESIGN X THE SMART HOME

IKEA Home smart: Designing inclusive and intuitive Smart Home products

I got the chance to re-imagine the concept of “smart” living at IKEA. We went end-to-end and was creating an entire IoT (Internet of Things) range, a system, and an app to be represent and control your home.

TEAM (IKEA HOME SMART)

Digital product owners, Architects, Designers, Developers, Researchers, Data scientists, Mechanical engineers, Industrial designers, Business Navigators at IKEA Home smart pshyical and digital range

SKILLS

Stakeholder management, User journey mapping, Workshop facilitation, Research & Home visit studies, Prototyping interractions (physical and digital), Figma specifications and Figma prototyping , Presentation of design & research outcomes (Miro, PPT)

ROLE

UX Design & Strategic UX research 2020-2025

At a Women in Tech conference at IKEA Älmhult

My journey

UX/UI & UX RESEARCH

Putting a Swedish name on some of the IKEA products

I contributed to UX/UI and UX research for IKEA’s Home Smart range including:

TRÅDFRI Smart Lighting: Designed onboarding and systematic variations for 100+ light sources.
Sensors, Plugs & Remotes: Defined UX interactions for control, grouping, and CRUD management.
Smart Roller Blinds: Developed physical-to-digital interactions for scheduling and adjustments.
SYMFONISK Wi-Fi Speakers: Worked on integrations, cross-platform play, and app pairing.
STARKVIND / FÖRNUFTIG Air Purifiers: Led UX/UI and research, including air quality meter pairing.

My impact / IKEA Home smart:

USER & MARKET RESEARCH + DEFINING USE CASES

Collaboration with UX researcher at IKEA to identify user + range, and market needs.

I did field visits, surveys, user journey mapping, workshops, and interviews to define product-market fit, collaborating with agencies to drive strategic decisions to enhance user’s experience. Many of the research initiatives has been self-driven.

DESIGN FOR CONNECTED PRODUCTS = UX & IOT

As the UX designer for IKEA’s air purifiers and sensors, I defined interactions for physical IoT products, sketching icons, interfaces, and controls.

Collaborated with creative technologists on sound design and control interfaces to enhance user experience.

Physical to digital interractions for tech - defining hub onboarding , pairing to app, feedback to user’s on each step

DEFINING DIGITAL INTERACTIONS

I am working with digital Agile teams for the last 2-3 year’s together with digital product leaders to define use cases and services.

I designed architecture of how to manage products in our app, controls for app and remote, enabling automation, air quality monitoring, and energy tracking within a connected smart home system and more.

Case study - Air - Physical to digital product ⬇️

RESEARCHING AIR + DEFINING AIR PRINCIPLES - 1 YEAR TO LAUNCH - UX OF STARKVIND CONNECTED AIR PURIFIERS + SENSOR

Clearing the Air: Designing IKEA’s Smart Purifiers for a Healthier Planet

Some of the final results, I designed the filter reminder notifications

Research: Digital ethnography - India - Qualitative & Quantitative study ⬇️

Air is an invisible problem. Air is supposed to be clean, and for everyone. We had to make an invisible problem visible, and the intent was to improve people’s life at home.

This project brought together IKEA’s UX team, range development, suppliers in China, and users in India and China. As the UX researcher and designer, I collaborated with a business analyst and lead UX researcher, working closely with the air range team, product owner, and Agency Space10. My direct access to IKEA’s air purifier prototypes and technologists allowed for hands-on exploration of both physical and digital solutions.

A human centered approach, to places where air is not a clean commodity.

Ethnographic Studies - Pandemic times

Conducted remote interviews with over 10 user’s in India. This approach allowed us to delve into daily routines, and air purifier usages.

Quantitative Survey

Surveyed over 170 Indian participants to gather broad insights into the impact of air pollution and their indoor air health.

To deepen user insights, I later initiated a qualitative study in China using digital ethnography, uncovering how people interacted with air purifiers and sensors during the pandemic. This human-centered research approach ensured our designs met real user needs while driving business value.

Air quality concerns everyone, kitchen smoke, dust, particles, pets, hair sprays all contribute to indoor pollution, as we spend more and more time indoors

Illustrated user journey - ethnographic study that illustrates how people seasonally use the product, over time. This gives insights how to design for longevity and trust, and gave insight into making the fan as silent as possible for increased customer adoption, which we would not have understood without doing user research.

Guiding the team further with air principles ⬇️

Handing over next steps for MVP & hypothesis

Miro analysis, synthesis, affinity mapping

Presenting results, and a recommendation list from UX with strategic guidance

Prototype phase - air user journey ⬇️

There was a need to develop digital touchpoints, and I visualised this in a user journey, both for app user and non-app user from the user perspective over a year cycle.

Presenting new business opportunities ⬇️

Upon discovering that every customer who purchases an air purifier will need to replace their filters annually, ensuring an ongoing relationship with the product, this would call for a large additional trust & long term sale opportunity. I saw this opportunity in both satisfying user needs and business needs.

In the UK, sales of air purifiers grew significantly in the 2023 financial year, increasing by 88% compared to the previous year. The UPPÅTVIND air purifier, launched in October 2022 at an accessible price point of £29, quickly became a bestseller.

My contribution

I developed physical to digital sound design, on the physical interface.

I developed digital touchpoints in app, manuals, web and with a push notification system on iOS and Android, to help customers track their filter usage and learn how to optimize performance for Carbon, VOC, and Particle filters.

Filters include a VOC and Particle filter, sold separately at IKEA stores, unfortunately not very accessible.

Presenting new business strategy to business & marketing team

To further enhance the customer experience and drive long-term loyalty, I proposed a seamless filter replacement solution—allowing users to subscribe for home delivery, purchase in bulk, or receive reminders for easy reordering.

The system guides users on when and how to replace the two key filters, ensuring continued efficiency.

This approach would reduce friction, ensure consistent product performance, and strengthen customer retention. However, the initiative was not pursued due to challenges in IKEA’s service development capacity.

The result: We launched a physical to digital product range for air.

Final screens & interfaces:

With a limited design system this was the first learning module of an otherwise quite technical app, paving way for more usability and ability for user to understand the context of tech

UX/UI by me and visual design made by colleagues at IKEA

**I prototyped introductions to the two filters** - as user’s had huge issues understanding what they were and how to install them. We even found insights that people had used an air purifier for a whole year without a filter installed, making it un-usable.

**The notifications would remind you when to change filters** - one important aspect of longevity of the product as filter needs to be replaced - new one constantly need’s to be purchased.

I designed and defined some of the behavior of the control panel together with a creative technologist
As the air purifier starts, the fan makes a sudden sound, and then goes back to silent - as user’s very nervous if they did not understand it was on (from observation)
Again - it is all about the details, and making the invisible visible.

Summary of Case Study ⬇️

Reflection and learnings

This project was a powerful lesson in bridging vision with reality. Working from Sweden, user interviews revealed a new perspective—air purifiers aren’t just products; they are long-term companions in people’s homes, requiring ongoing care and interaction.

Despite strong stakeholder interest, challenges in service development—subscription models, infrastructure, and bulk-buying limitations—meant some ideas couldn’t move forward. This highlighted the complexities of scaling digital solutions in a large, retail-driven company with a less mature design system.

Key takeaways:

Cultural Sensitivity – User needs differ across markets. While China favored feature-rich, tech-heavy designs, India preferred minimalism.
Iterative Design – Rapid prototyping and user testing were essential to refine solutions that truly resonated.
Scalability Challenges – Even the best ideas face structural and operational constraints in large organizations.

The potential remains—integrating digital touchpoints for filter optimization and maintenance could enhance the user experience and drive long-term engagement. Clean air is fundamental yet often overlooked. The next step? Designing solutions that not only improve air quality but help users care for it effortlessly.

“I learned that the smart home and air quality world wide is not just about control and handling the issue at hand. It is much more about interaction, and cultural influence that influences the problem we are trying to solve.

NEXT PROJECT - ENERGY AT IKEA