Amazing prototype ! Looks like Mushroom card or Minimalist but it’s great 
Do you’ve a roadmap ? @matthiasdebaat
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I absolutely love it. I mainly use the dashboards on my phone and it took me a while to get it “app friendly”. This looks like a better approach.
One thing I’d just like to point out: let everyting be customizable. When I see those new features like the media bar or the navigation tabs, I want to be able to adjust this to my needs. I’d like to see all of this as additional features, but not to force anything on the user. While I pay attention to my UI design a lot of users care more about the functionality.
And regarding the discussion about devices: I am an entity person. Please let us use everything with entities as well, because there is currently no way to customize devices.
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That’s for sure. I’m all for making it easier for new users, and ‘prettier’ by default but it looks so much like all the big players such as google home you need USPs. Currently, for me that’s the ability to reduce cloud dependence (although I still use a lot of cloud services) and the ability to customise. The UI is a big part of that customisation (although automations and other back-end things offer a lot more flexibility than some of the big guys).
People who are happy with cloud dependence (most average Joe’s) and don’t want to use the more advanced, flexible, features aren’t going to go looking for another solution when homekit / google home etc. are on their devices by default.
Yes and no in my opinion. Too much hassle with the lights and the rooms. You just have s single entity light in the room on the main page. Add the temps, humidity, things to control and scrolling will take forever. Just a personal opinion but the UI approach should be different. We are BULDING smart homes - so a light control through the phone is a DUMB house. It’s much easier to call Alexa or alternative for this. The interface on the main area should only show what is of interest. Temp outside, errors e.t.c. Just a penny in
Some people don’t like talking to the wall. Each to their own.
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I’m going to be a contrarian again. I know this is just me, but I suspect I’m not alone…
I don’t really like when computers talk to me. And I am certain they don’t want to hear what I have to say to them. Oh, I get it. It’s real convenient to pretend you’re on Star Trek and say “Computer, turn on the hall light.” I have family members who love this stuff. I won’t say anything derogatory about voice control.
My point is, everyone’s idea of home automation is different. Don’t assume everyone wants to share all the details of their lives with Apple, Google or Amazon. Don’t assume everyone wants presence detection. Don’t assume everyone uses HA for their media player. HA should be the framework on which we each build out our idea of the best home environment. The focus should always be on keeping the hardware working, keeping the software efficient, and maximizing flexibility for the user.
Note: @nickrout said the same thing, far more succinctly, while I was typing this tome. Thanks Nick!
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If this layout concept is meant as a replacement to the current auto-generated dashboard, then it is a great improvement.
If so, it’s also mostly irrelevant to the users currently here. How many of us here actually use the auto generated dashboard?
If we will be giving up and/or dumbing down current dashboard functionality for this, then there aren’t strong enough words to properly reflect my dislike.
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But neither your dashboard nor voice control are home automation, they are remote control. Different thing entirely.
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Good point. Automation is just one thing Home Assistant can do for you. I shouldn’t have used that term in my last post.
For me the real value is home monitoring. In my climate, failure of the heating system or sump pumps could be very, very costly. Being able to automate some things is just a bonus of HA. Remote control is also very handy.
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I don’t know, I’m not blown away by the design. It looks, for the lack of a better term, exchangeable. It looks like I’d imagine any generic smart home app from any of the big ones would look like. I can imagine that designs along the exact same lines have gone through many concept meetings at Amazon, Google, etc. I just find them bland.
Change does not always equal innovation, especially not on something as subjective as a UI. If you guys want this (or something along the lines of this) as a new user experience, fine. But please don’t forget who your core users are. Let it be configurable (and replaceable) and don’t dumb things down. You have a lot of technical users here. Don’t push them out of the way on your quest for the Average Joe. Let us have our highly optimized, functional and productive UIs.
Absolutely, this is the number one thing for me too. Automating is important, but secondary.
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First, i like the concept!
What bothers me on the first sight are the colors, that’s easily getting to much and i can’t focus on the devices.
In my opinion, these kinda fit to the new changes. Dashboards are not really broken but inconsistent and may hard to use for new or inexperienced users. I spent countless, ongoing hours to configure my Dashbords so that familiy members can use it. The only way mine use it was when it looked like apps they know. So for me, the new Dashboard would be a great new functionality.
The Problem is that in the end, new users will probably benefit most from this while old users have a hard time to adapt to the new changes and may loose some functionality when it’s sacrificed to a better look.
But i don’t see any great danger with this concept for now.
I think the danger is in the phrase I emphasized, above. Improvements shouldn’t be a “sacrifice.” If we can’t make it better, we shouldn’t mess with it.
That said, I’m all for making the UI truly easier, for new and old users alike. I understand that resistance to change can be an impediment to progress. Sometimes we just have to get over it.
But I’ve been in this business long enough to know that dumbing down the UI so that the journalists and influencers in the popular media give it good marks is a bad approach. It’s the day-to-day users, the ones who understand what the product can do for them, we should be listening to. Not someone looking to review this product and move on to the next.
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i believe Home Assistant is far away from that. However a little more publicity isn’t hat bad. But i agree that there is a danger and critics here should be taken serious.
For now but you can’t deny the seemingly inexorable trend in that direction…
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This maybe useful in some occasions, but may also be very counter intuitive in other occasions.
For example, the Volkswagen HACS integration generates many entities for one single car. So does the LG washing machine integration. All those entities have much and detailed information, for which I use customised cards to show as much of helpful information for that device (considering the car or washing machine as the devices in this case).
On the otherhand I also have Shellies behind my light switches across my house. Where there are two switches I mostly use Shelly 2.5. The two inputs control two separate lights not necessarily in the same room. One example here is the landing/porch, where one light switch toggles the light in the room, but another one switches the lights outside the house on and off. In terms of Home Assistant the Shelly is one single device, but it is actually switching to separate physical (dumb) devices.
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I would hope that the ‘powers that be’ understand that they can’t compete with apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung by just doing what they do and trying to be a bit better. They cam provide a nice UI (and should) but flexibility and user control are what’s going to set them aside from the crowd.
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I’m not sure they understand this, to be honest.
I think it is time to admit that HA will never be ready for the Average Joe. HA will never be able to compete with Google or Apple. Home Assistant is so far away from being ready for average users, it’s not even funny anymore. Even after years of trying to make it ‘easy’, the learning curve is still way beyond what a non technical user will be able and willing to put up with. And for the few that try, the next breaking change is just going to have them start all over again.
Home Assistant is currently targeting a very specific crowd of people. Technically and privacy minded, tinkerers, makers, hobbyists, developers. The kind of people that are not happy with whatever generic stuff Google, Apple and all the other big ones have to offer. We found a home with Home Assistant and that’s great ! These are the people you HA developers should cater to, this is your target audience. By pushing more and more into a market you will never be able to really penetrate, you’ll lose your real users on the way. I don’t want that to happen, because I like Home Assistant. Don’t be the next Firefox, that dropped from over 30% market share to virtually zero because they didn’t understand who their users were.
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I’ve seen this “mushroom” term around quite a bit. What exactly does it mean and where does it come from?
I take it this is a mock-up for the app UI? I most likely wouldn’t use the app, and opt for the web site on a mobile device, and maybe even in desktop mode.
As for the UI in general, whatever changes you make, don’t force them on those already using HA. I’ve been tinkering with it for about a month, after deciding to get my old alarm system up and running, and wanting to get it connected to a computer, and to the net, and… that led me to HA. Since I’m starting at a deficit of devices, it’s been a challenge trying to figure out what to get, usually landing on “will it work or not, and to what extent?”
Frankly, as a fairly new user, and one who finds object-oriented programming non-intuitive, I think the higher priority should be on documentation. And not just for the devs, but for the community as a whole. It shouldn’t have to take studying source code to figure out what is and isn’t possible and how to implement it, or sifting through forum posts to learn what seems basic to loads of people. I can’t say how many times I’ve seen “just do…” in a post and wondered “just do it how?!” A new UI isn’t going to address actual usability issues due to the documentation not being explanatory enough.
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It would impact both. The app and “web site” are mostly the same thing. The app streamlines the connection process a little, adds alerts, and exposes phone details and location to HA, and a couple of other extras, but the UI itself is just another web browser.