Designing IoT-Based Products for Indoor Air Quality Management: A Design Thinking Methodology

Related research reports the occurrence of several million deaths annually due to the harmful effects of air pollution, whether environmental or domestic. To reduce the impact, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) investigation is increasingly a subject of utmost importance for mankind nowadays, since people spend most of their time indoors, where the pollution level is higher than outdoors. This work presents the design and development of an Internet-of-Things (IoT) based product for online IAQ assessment and mitigation, which included the design of three modular devices for IAQ management, where the following characteristics are studied and combined: (i) IAQ, (ii) energy efficiency, and (iii) human occupation. Based on the challenge of using IoT technologies, the design of a product case was put forward by taking advantage of the possibilities offered by these solutions as well as improving the relationship between a product function and its form. This article aims to explore a design thinking methodology to develop an organized product idea with the engineering area for an IoT device to monitor IAQ. With the interconnection of these technologies with the design, the goal is to respond to the user needs by applying a methodology able to support and sustain the design research focused on user requirements specified based upon the user perspective and highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary teams to establish a conceptual methodology.