Visualising WiFi
for Domos
Design for Screens Studio, Spring 2018
Dhritiman Chatterjee
Client
Domos solves internet issues by gathering and analysing historical data from the router, using machine learning. They have an app through which customers could access their data.
Challenges
To help customers understand how WiFi works and to identify the root cause of their internet issues.
To share access to this rich data with customers so that it’s useful, understandable and actionable.
The project
Objective
Understand WiFi in the context of home and explore ways of visualising the invisible nature of WiFi.
Present the technical and historical data from the router in a visual and understandable way.
Approach
To visually explore ways of breaking down dense technical information and visualising it in an everyday, relatable context for people, an approach of understanding by sketching was taken.
Sketched exploration 1
What does a house look like to a WiFi router?
In the following images, the density of the blue
dots represent WiFi strength.
How might people see a house?
How might a router see the house? Router in the living room.
How might a router see the house? Router in the bed room.
How might a router see the house? Router in the hallway.
Sketched exploration 2
From where in your home do you use the most data?
The orange dots represent data usage. Could it inform
WiFi router placement?
From where do we use the most data?
Router in the living room.
Router in the bedroom.
Router in the hallway.
Exploration
How might we show the historical data from the WiFi router, in a way people understand, on their phone screen? (Domos has a smartphone app)
Insight
People do not understand data - they recognise patterns. People might understand data better by “seeing” it, than “reading” it.
Which devices use more data, and command the most bandwidth?
How might people utilise their understanding of the WiFi data? (same image as the cover)