Steam Shower Digital Interface
Delta Faucet & Brizo
Directed all UX for Delta and Brizo's in-shower digital wall interface and connected mobile app — transforming an acquired product with minimal UX into an award-winning, best-in-class smart home spa experience with multi-profile customization, full IoT integration, and ADA compliance.
Impact
The DFC@Home app — which unified Delta and Brizo smart water products including this steam shower system — launched to market-leading results, earning a 4.1 star App Store rating and beating direct competitors Moen and Kohler. The hardware interfaces went on to win multiple industry awards.
An Acquisition With UX Debt
The Acquisition
Two Brands, One System
Project Requirements
Improve Usability
The original wall controller did basic things well but needed ADA improvements and better support for preset configurations.
Guided Setup
Digital step-by-step configuration, app syncing, device registration, and QR code pairing — all from the wall panel and app.
Add Features
More user profiles, more presets, expanded control of audio, lighting, aroma, and steam. Custom wallpapers to match bathroom interiors.
Mobile App
Create presets and timers, control lighting, and receive alerts when shower temperature reaches the user's preset — all from the app.
What I Directed
- 01
Step-by-Step Setup Flow
Advocated for and successfully integrated a guided, step-by-step setup experience into both the wall interface and the app. This replaced a confusing out-of-box experience with a clear, sequential onboarding flow.
- 02
Personalized Scenes
Directed design of multiple scene creation, allowing users to build custom named experiences like 'Post-workout' or 'Wake-up' with temperature, duration, lighting, rinse cycles, and music playlists. Delta's Steamscape supports multiple profiles; Brizo's Mystix supports up to 12 user presets across 4 users.
- 03
Heuristic Evaluation & User Testing
Directed my team to conduct a formal heuristic evaluation of the new panel UI. Based on the findings, I created prototypes which were user tested and iterated under the directive to keep as close to existing functions as possible, minimizing relearning for users familiar with the original system.
- 04
In-Context Design Decisions
Considering that steam and water affect users' vision in-shower, I directed bold colors and high contrast as the design standard throughout the wall interface, ensuring legibility in the actual use environment.
- 05
App Pairing Experience
Led UX for the app pairing flow across multiple user testing iterations. Most feedback centered on instruction clarity and setting accurate expectations for wait times during syncing and registration. The final flow also included parental safety controls. Child profiles cannot make temperature adjustments.
- 06
Brand-Agnostic Mobile App
Because DFC@Home would control both Delta and Brizo products, marketing aligned on a brand-agnostic visual direction. I directed a UI approach that could serve both brands without favoring either, a constraint that shaped every mobile design decision.
Interface with multiple profiles
Brizo Interface
Solution: We conveyed the increase and decrease of temperature, lighting and audio levels with plus and minus icons on either side of a 'stepper' visual.
Brizo Wallpapers
Brizo's luxury branded interface features customized, ADA-compliant backgrounds for the panel. These are for users who wish to match the inert face with their bathroom designs best as possible.
Steam Features
Pairing the App
Creating a profile and a scene
- Custom temperature
- Custom Chroma lighting settings
- Pinning scene to the dashboard
Starting a scene from the app
DFC@Home App and System Product Launch
Apps Store Rating: 4.1 Stars (out of 5)
Beating our competitors Moen (1.6) and Kohler (3.6)
Featured in Architectural Digest
Industry Accolades
