My Work
For the past 7 years I've been a key member of the Savant Systems team, contributing my expertise to a wide range of projects, including app design, video content production, and directing photoshoots. In the early days, I was the sole full-time designer working closely with our VP of Design. Over time, our creative department expanded to include seven talented full-time designers with diverse skillsets.
Savant is a luxury home automation company. These homes have professional installers that do custom installs. Speakers in the ceilings, automated shades and lights, security systems, pool control, basically anything you can imagine Savant can control. Since my time at Savant, they have bought GE Lighting as well as started Savant Power, a smart power and battery backup system.
My journey at Savant Systems has provided me with a unique opportunity to contribute across various aspects of the creative process while gradually transitioning into a more specialized role. Today, I proudly hold the position of Senior User Experience Designer, where my main focus lies in two critical areas: spearheading a complete website redesign and designing cutting-edge features for our growing Energy Management section within the app. It has been a fulfilling experience witnessing the company's growth and being an integral part of its creative evolution.
Music Experience
One of the first projects I lead the design of was the Savant Music Experience. With Savant's audio over IP technology, users can stream music to any room or throughout their entire home using any music service they usually use. Similar systems include Sonos as well as Control4 solutions.
My central role in this project was to design an intuitive and user-friendly interface that enhances the music browsing and discovery process. The goal was to empower users to effortlessly access and explore their favorite music services, including renowned platforms like Apple Music and Spotify. By ensuring a smooth and streamlined navigation experience, users can easily find exactly what they're looking for, fostering a deeper connection with their favorite tunes and artists.
As a result of our collaborative efforts, Savant home users can savor an unparalleled music experience that complements their lifestyle and elevates their daily routines. Through this project, I honed my skills in user experience design, ensuring that technology seamlessly integrates with human behavior, ultimately enhancing the way people interact with their living spaces.
The Savant project is a testament to my dedication to creating innovative and user-centric solutions, bringing meaningful value to people's lives. It has been a fulfilling experience to contribute my expertise to a cutting-edge product that redefines how we interact with technology in the comfort of our homes.
I created the following video for a promo:
Power Management
The project that I worked on the longest was the Savant Power app experience. I was involved from the beginning of the design process sketching on whiteboards and talking to stakeholders about the desired outcomes, and continued working on and off on this project fo roughly 5 years. This product went from a concept that I helped develop to being installed in homes across North America.
I worked closely with the iOS, Android, and QA teams which spread across the US and Ukraine. The Savant Power system not only backs up the home with battery power and solar, but allows the dynamic shedding of loads to extend battery life or change primary tasks. An example of this is in a power outage situation the user wants to be able to charge their car during the day when the sun is out and switch to running laundry at night. The home's inverter won't be able to handle both of these tasks at the same time, so the typical way of handling this is to have two breaker panels that must be hardwired and switched between manually. This system allows the user to change "Power Modes" from the app, or even directly turn on an off loads, even when not home.
Website Design and Management
I currently manage the design of savant.com including running the Figma library, running meetings and managing tickets, working closely with QA and Development, and doing code reviews before pushing changes live. I have meetings with stakeholders and help prioritize tasks for myself and the development team. I designed all web components to be responsive as well as prototyped all animations in Figma.
Each component was built in a custom CMS, and I would design pages that use the components based on stakeholder's goals.
An intimate understanding of the product and users made me especially efficient at designing pages. I directed and shot several of our photoshoots so I knew what assets we were working with and I was able to write rough copy that our writing team would clean up.
Yet to be Released Projects
My most recent projects are yet to be made public, but I have learned some new skills while in the design process. I've been able to create and manage a Figma library using the new variable system which allows for dynamic brand color as well as built in Light and Dark mode.
I've also expanded on what I expect is the expected use of Figma's variable system to create some more complicated prototypes. While this feature is in Beta it has been fun to learn and experiment with some of the limits of Figma.
With creating this new project from scratch I've really found myself feeling very comfortable with Figma's library system and using variations of components to create a robust and easy to manage shared library.
Personal Projects
I really enjoy shooting and editing video. I'll do in house video shoots for work, but I find the most fun in finding a story to tell outside of work. Recently I helped some friends shoot a Kickstarter promo for their podcast. It's not user experience, but it's fun and I'm proud of it. I also consulted on their branding and marketing.