Smart
Neighborhood
Overview
A Smart Neighborhood for Intelligent Life
A Southern Company Smart Neighborhood is an innovative venture and vision of a sustainable future. Built on a foundation of efficiency, smart technology, and alternative power sources, it’s a community that seamlessly assists life while reducing a lifetime of waste.
My Role
Lead User Experience Designer
I was particularly excited to work on this project for two reasons. The first being that it’s a fantastic initiative in environmentalism. The second is that it’s a unique experience design project that transcends the computer screen. As a user experience designer, I sometimes have to inform others and remind myself that this job is not just about creating digital experiences. Often, it’s about creating an entire experience. In this case, it’s the experience of moving into a new type of home and neighborhood that no one had experienced before. A Smart Neighborhood.
Objectives
- Devise a process for new homeowners to become acquainted with their smart home and become proficient in its technologies
- Developed low to high-fidelity prototypes that will assist homeowners in the process of connecting all the smart home devices and appliances
- Create literature to educate homeowners on the technology, research, and overall mission of the Smart Neighborhood initiative
Altus
Georgia Power Smart Neighborhood
Altus is the first community of its kind in Georgia and is the second Smart Neighborhood I’ve worked on. Developed with the partnership of Georgia Power and PulteGroup, These Atlanta townhomes are built on a foundation of energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, and smart home automation.
An Investment in Our Future
Over the next several years, Georgia Power, in partnership with Southern Company’s research and development team, will be identifying opportunities to better understand how people use energy, so they can craft programs and services to better meet their needs. Additionally, they will research how to best integrate rooftop solar, in-home battery storage, and interactions between those systems and the existing electric grid.
Altus and its Smart Neighborhood counterparts are much more than a collection of homes equipped with trendy gadgets. They are a crucial first step in an endeavor to create an entire landscape of sustainability.
Reynolds Landing
Alabama Power Smart Neighborhood
Reynolds Landing is the first Smart Neighborhood I worked on and is the first of its kind in Alabama. This community, featuring 62 state-of-the-art homes, is connected to the Southeast’s first community-scale microgrid.
These Smart Neighborhood homes feature energy-efficient appliances, connected devices, innovative security solutions, and home automation…all designed to simplify homeowners’ lives and give them more control over their home and energy use.
A Little Extra Perspective
Benjamin Franklin has a commonly known quote that “A penny saved is a penny earned.” This is a simple and perfectly adequate quote for our cause. However, he has another that is more eloquently and fitting. “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
Today, we are able to monitor energy and automate its use like never before. One day, procuring this data may become less costly than procuring the energy itself. So, by investing in this knowledge we are hoping for a return that pays the best interest in our future.
Today, it’s a Smart Neighborhood. Tomorrow, it’s a smart city, state, country, and world. It all has to start somewhere. I like to think a bit of it starts here, with this neighborhood.