Nokia Smart Home

A connected home should not feel like network administration

Nokia's Smart Home platform brought security cameras, environmental sensors, and a central hub into one product. I led the UX direction for the setup and day-to-day experience.

The category was already crowded with devices that were hard to install, noisy once connected, and split across separate apps. The product needed to work for a household, not only for the person who knew the Wi-Fi password.

Research happened in people's homes

We spent time with households in three countries. Seeing the products in context changed the design priorities. Setup had to survive weak signals and interruptions. Alerts had to be useful without becoming background noise. Permissions had to make sense when adults, children, guests, and caregivers shared the same space.

What we designed

• A guided setup flow for adding the hub and connected devices without requiring a manual.
• An information model that could grow from one camera to a house full of devices.
• Quiet default states, with clear escalation when the system detected something that needed attention.
• Household permissions and controls for people with different roles and levels of technical confidence.

My role

I directed the UX work, connected the research to the product strategy, and led the design of setup, monitoring, notifications, and shared household controls.