Kasper Global
2023-2025
Kasper Monitoring
Designing operational workflows for connected-building teams
Overview
The work behind a connected home
Kasper Monitoring brings the technical work behind home automation into one internal platform, from device configuration and troubleshooting to property installation and hardware quality control. As Lead UX Engineer, I worked closely with engineering teams to turn these complex processes into clearer, more structured workflows.
Challenge
When simple experiences hide complex operations
Behind Kasper's connected-home experience were complex engineering, installation and manufacturing processes. Device configurations depended on technical rules, installations stretched across different construction stages, and hardware testing involved both automated and manual procedures.
Much of this work relied on manual coordination and individual engineering knowledge. The challenge was to bring structure and clarity to these operations without compromising the technical control each team needed.
Discovery
Learning from the people doing the work
I didn't start with a formal research process. I started by working with the people who understood the system.
I spent time with engineers, observed their workflows, asked questions, tried parts of the installation and configuration process, and worked through technical requirements with them.
My role was to turn that understanding into usable experiences. Sometimes that meant sketches and wireframes; other times, we went straight into Figma and refined the designs through discussion, development and internal testing.
There wasn't a dedicated Service Team yet, so the engineers already doing installation and support work became our closest proxy users.
Exploring device types
Workflow
Different teams, different design problems
Kasper Team — Making complex technical configuration manageable
This was one of the most demanding parts of the project.
Configuring a device wasn't as simple as filling out a form. Different devices had different structures and behaviours. A multi-gang switch could have multiple nodes, while other devices relied on sensor-based Signature Patterns, gestures and device-specific settings.
I worked with engineers to organize these configurations, use constrained inputs where appropriate, and make reusable device templates flexible enough for individual adjustments without changing the original template.
One challenge emerged when Signature Patterns, Trigger Types and Trigger Lists became mixed together in the developed experience. We revisited that structure and separated the concepts to make the configuration process easier to follow.
Error Manager brought a different challenge. Some technical faults could be handled through predefined automatic resolutions, while others required an engineer to review and execute a resolution manually. The interface needed to distinguish between what the system could handle itself and what still needed human attention.
The work was less about making technical screens look simple and more about making complicated operations understandable without losing control over them.
Defining sensor-based Signature Patterns with reusable configuration rules.
Tracking system errors and distinguishing manual from executable resolution flows.
Configuring node actions, gestures and device-specific output behaviour.
Service Team — Designing for work that happens over months
Installing a connected-home system wasn't a single task completed in one visit.
The process moved from architectural drawings and hardware planning to cabling, distribution boards, device installation, app configuration and final checks. Different steps happened at different points during construction.
Rather than treating installation as one long form, I organized Project Configuration around these real-world stages so teams could return to a project and understand its progress.
Some interactions connected the physical site directly to the software. Ring Verification helped check wiring connectivity during construction, while Ping Device made an installed device blink so technicians could identify it against its digital record.
After installation, tenant monitoring and issue workflows were designed to support ongoing troubleshooting.
The aim was to make a long, technically demanding process easier to follow from one stage to the next.
Walking through the eight stages that structured a property installation from planning to final checks.
Manufacturer/QC — Bridging hardware testing and software
One of the more unusual parts of the project involved designing interactions for a physical QC device with a small, button-controlled 8-bit display.
Engineers defined the testing procedures, and I translated them into short, guided interactions covering firmware installation, automated checks, manual verification and retesting.
We also designed a manufacturer-facing web experience to organize QC batches, review results and track failures. Testing happened on the physical device; the web application was there to monitor and manage the information.
It was a different kind of design challenge, where even the space available for a single instruction mattered.
Monitoring batch completion, pass rate and individual test attempts.
Tracking QC batches and overall testing progress.
Reviewing device-level test results and individual QC checks.
Reflection
What the work taught me
Kasper Monitoring was tested within an R&D environment, with Manufacturer/QC workflows developed and tested in-house and the planned Service Team experience evaluated with internal engineers acting as proxy users.
The platform hadn’t reached commercial rollout during my time on the project, so I don’t present it as a production-scale success story.
Looking back, I’d bring inventory visibility closer to deployment planning and make the relationship between failed QC tests, related issues and retesting more explicit.
The biggest lesson for me was that designing technical products means understanding far more than the interface. You have to understand the hardware, the people using it, and what actually happens when the work moves off-screen.
