Home automation: experts' point of view

Our last article explained why home automation isn't working today, at least for us. The article was deliberately provoking, and we received lots of feedback. Some were good, some were not, but all of them taught us something. In this article we decided to sum up some of the most interesting thoughts, to remember how some experts are approaching home automation.

Group #1. Home automation is my precious.

I Don't think Automation Sucks.
I think Automation is exactly where it should be.
Otherwise the costs would drop, the profits would
follow and the work load would increase...

Mr. Gollum

• 

For some experts the main goal is profit. They do not care about user experience, services or innovation. They only care about themselves. Their perfect world is the one where everything is closed and under their control, so they can become rich. They are the winners, absolutely.

Group #2. Homeowners are a nightmare.

As long as you are dealing with "A Home Owner" you get comments such as; "it's too big", it's too small", it's too fat", it's too thin", "it looks funny", "I can't read the text", "isn't there a different color", "why doesn't it do everything"...

Mr. Nightmare

• 

I think this problem arise when you lack two basic things.

1. Know what you do. Know your sector and the solutions you can offer. If you don't, clients will start asking for any possible idea they have in mind.
2. Start saying no. The secret of getting half a product instead of a half-ass product is saying no. If people complain when you don't adopt their ideas, remind them why they liked the home automation system you proposed in the first place. I know this is not easy, but it will pay back.

Group #3. You can not play with me, you are not smart.

Home automation needs a lot of time, effort and knowledge and it's a challenge where you can't succed if you don't have the technical knowledge, pragmatic sensibility to deal with end-users and a strong project management skills...

Mr. Smart

• 

I didn't know home automation was like getting a degree in astrophysics. For sure home automation is not like playing with Lego (not yet) but if we keep making home automation something so difficult to use, we will never see a connected house in our lives. Wouldn't be better if every single person who has a specific knowledge could improve domotics? We think so.

Conclusions

Of course, there were other answers making up other groups, even interesting ones. However, these were the ones that made us think the most. It seems that most experts in the field of home automation have a limited way of thinking, referring only to the existing market. Our dream, the birth of an open home automation system for everyone, appears to be far this way, and this is the reason we are here, a passionate need to change the rules.