Belkin
Conserve Gateway

Enabling smart energy choices at home

While a partner at Daylight, I worked with Belkin to design a new way to help people make smarter choices about energy use. My direct client was Kevin Ashton—co-founder of the MIT Auto-ID Center, which created the global RFID standard, and the person who coined the term "Internet of Things”. Inspiring company to keep!

At the time, most competing products simply reported past energy use through technical dashboards that meant little to everyday consumers. Our research showed that people weren’t interested in kilowatt-hours; they cared about cost, savings, and what actions to take next.

Guided by those insights, we designed the Conserve Gateway: a router that could monitor and control devices on the home network while offering clear, specific suggestions for improving efficiency. Rather than just showing the past, it gave people a view of where they were headed—and how to adjust their behavior to meet their goals.

The project was honored by both the Industrial Designers Society of America and BusinessWeek.