Electricity and Data Application Design for PHYSEE PowerWindow

Abstract

The project is in cooperation with PHYSEE. The Company provides completely transparent windows, that generate data by sensing the environment condition and convert solar power into electricity, simultaneously.
During the project, to create more values to the company, and to fulfil the personal goal of the designer, the Meaning-Driven Innovation was used in the project to look for a design solution that creates new meanings to people. Therefore, the original assignment was re-briefed to "to design a solution to access electricity and data from the PowerWindow/SmartWindow in a way that fits the current or near future scenario (1-2 years) at home or in public buildings. The solution should create new meanings to users' daily life, and therefore engage more people to use PHYSEE's products.
EESYbreeze (Figure 1), as the outcome to the assignment, provides a new meaning to the windows: Smart building skin that helps to optimise indoor environment by autonomously introducing better air for people.
To realise the proposed meaning, a Product Service System (PSS) was designed to strengthen the meaning for all the stakeholders in the project.
The main product, included in the Product Service System was further developed by designing the user experience, designing the product work-flow, and the product embodiment.
Through the evaluation with the window ventilator experts from RENSON and the iterations of prototyping, the design was proven to have the potential to be realised technically.
The user tests on the user experience and perceived air quality was suggested to be carried out for the future development.