Scheduling in a language
users already speak
A calendar-native scheduling pattern for De'Longhi's smart climate devices, built on research into why experienced smart-home users struggle more.
TIMELINE
April - June 2026
8 weeks
CONTEXT
University project
Client project
MY ROLE
UX research
UI design
Problem framing
Design direction
TEAMMATES
Niels de Regt
Rishi Sonawane
Hugo van der Linden
Simon Guðmundsson
OVERVIEW
Group research for a client,
individual design exploration
De'Longhi asked our team to audit the scheduling features of DeLonghi Comfort, the companion app for their Pinguino portable air conditioner — a brand better known for espresso machines than climate control.
I took the research further on my own, redesigning the scheduling interaction with an eye toward a pattern that could generalize beyond this one device.
3 EXPERIENCED
WTIH SMART HOME
4 INEXPERIENCED
WITH SMART HOME
RESEARCH
Quarter long
research project
We ran task-based usability testing with 7 TU Delft students — split between smart-home-experienced and first-time users — on the De'Longhi Comfort app paired with the Pinguino AC.
Each session combined think-aloud task completion across six scheduling tasks, post-task confidence and difficulty ratings, and a UEQ questionnaire, giving us both behavioral and self-reported usability data.
FINDINGS
PRAGMATIC
QUALITY
0.65
HEDONIC
QUALITY
-0.45
In theory usable,
in practice dreadful
Pragmatic usability scored 0.65 on the UEQ, just under the 0.8 industry benchmark — the app largely works — but hedonic quality scored -0.45, with novelty the weakest single dimension, signaling users found it conventional to the point of aesthetic fatigue.
FINDINGS
INEXPERIENCED
EXPERIENCED
AVG % OF TASKS
COMPLETED
SUCCESSFULLY
99%
78%
AVG % OF TASKS
RATED HARDER
THAN EXPECTED
38%
56%
Surprisingly, experienced
users struggle way more
The counterintuitive finding: experienced smart-home users performed worse than first-time users, most sharply on schedule editing, where 0% of experienced participants succeeded against 100% of novices. it conventional to the point of aesthetic fatigue.
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store
CONCLUSIONS
Mental models
failing users
App's scheduling logic diverges from patterns users already carry from calendars and alarms. This leads to a lot of confusion and screen abandoment.
FINDINGS
Poor system
feedback
Poor system feedback, where actions like edits and overwrites happen silently, leaving users unsure whether the system registered their input.
FINDINGS
Questionable
interaction quality
Both visual and behavioral — the interface reads as dated relative to comparable smart-home apps, and offers no moments of delight or engagement.
SOLUTION
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
Reimagining the
scheduling flow
The redesign restructures scheduling around three layers — presets, day patterns, and the calendar — mirroring how users already think about time rather than how the original app happened to store it. A preset captures a single setting bundle (mode, temperature, humidity); day patterns compose presets into a reusable sequence for one day; the calendar paints those day patterns onto specific dates, with repeats or one-off exceptions, rather than treating a week as its own saved object.
This flowchart maps that hierarchy end to end, including how the system handles a scheduling conflict: rather than resolving silently, every collision routes through an explicit user choice, with the result confirmed visibly rather than assumed.
REFLECTION
Group research for a client,
individual design exploration
De'Longhi asked our team to audit the scheduling features of DeLonghi Comfort, the companion app for their Pinguino portable air conditioner — a brand better known for espresso machines than climate control.
I took the research further on my own, redesigning the scheduling interaction with an eye toward a pattern that could generalize beyond this one device.