HomeKit User Interface Guide

HomeKit User Interface Guide

Introduction

With HomeKit, you can use the home automation APP on iOS devices to control and configure the accessories/accessories connected to your home, regardless of the manufacturer's device. The Home Automation APP can perform the following tasks:

• Set Home
• Manage Users
• Add or remove accessories
• Define scenarios

In addition, Home Automation apps should be easy to use and pleasant. You can create a good user experience in the following ways:

• Integrate Siri
• Automatic attachment searching
• Use understandable language

Set Home

The HomeKit system has three types of locations: Room, Zone, and Home. The Room is a basic concept of living Room, bedroom, and can contain any number of accessories. Zones is a collection of Room, such as upstairs.

You must specify at least one Home as the accessory. Each Home contains different numbers of rooms and can selectively contain different numbers of zones. Users can easily find and control accessories through Room and Zone. The APP should provide methods to create, name, adjust, and delete Home, Room, and Zone.

If you have multiple Home, you must allow them to specify the default home to quickly set and configure new accessories.

Manage Users

The APP should provide a method to manage the permissions of users to control the accessories in Home. Add an iCloud account to the Home, and the account owner can adjust the accessory function. When an account owner specifies an administrator, they can add new accessories, manage users, and set Homes to create a scenario.

Add and remove accessories

It is very important to add and remove accessories easily and quickly. The APP should be able to automatically search for new accessories and display them in the UI.

The user needs to confirm the accessory operation results, so make sure that the user can quickly confirm the accessories, such as the light bulb, you should ask the user to use your APP to open/close the light bulb to make sure it is stored in the Home.

The attachment configuration includes specifying the name, Home, Room, or optional Zone for it. The administrator needs to enter the accessory setup Code (including hardware documentation or packaging) to complete the connection process between the accessory and Home.

Apple's Wireless Accessory Configuration (WAC) is used to add Wi-Fi-enabled accessories to the home network. Users can access WAC in settings or in your APP. Use the ExternalAccessory framework API to display the UI provided by the system so that you can use WAC to discover and configure accessories without leaving your APP. After you configure an accessory with WAC, you can add the accessory to the Home and specify a name and Room for it. Note: Generally, you should make the APP run on the foreground to enable the user to discover and configure accessories.

Find accessories

Make sure that you provide users with different methods to quickly access the accessories. Different times, seasons, and user locations can affect the importance of an accessory at a specific time. Therefore, you should be able to find the accessory by type, name, or location in the Home.

Define scenarios

The scenario provides a powerful way to adjust multiple accessories at the same time. Each scenario has a name and can contain any number of actions related to the accessories and functions in the Home. If possible, it is suggested that you define a scenario based on the accessories in Home. For example, the exit scenario may indicate that the room temperature should be lowered, the lights should be turned off, and all the doors should be locked. When creating your own scenario, you can consider including accessories Based on the selected Room or Zone. Enabling users to make choices can speed up and simplify the configuration process.

Integrate Siri

Siri can perform complex operations using a single statement. Siri can recognize Home, Room, Zone, and other names, and recognize "Siri, lock up my house in Tahoe", "Siri, turn off the upstairs lights", and "Siri, make it warmer in the media room. such statements. Siri can also identify the accessory name and function, so that users can publish commands such as "Siri, dim the desk lamp.

To identify a scenario, users' requests to Siri may need to include the words "mode" or "scene", such as "Siri, set the Movie Scene", "Siri, enable Movie mode "or" Siri, set up for Movie ". When configuring an action, it is best to let the user know which action Siri can trigger. For example, when determining the Movie Scene settings, You can also display the recommended languages that users can use, such as "You can use Siri to activate this scene by saying 'siri, set the house to Movie mode. '"

Information Transmission

Home Automation may also be daunting for users. Make sure that your APP uses a conversational language, which is user-friendly and friendly. Avoid using acronyms and technical terms that users do not understand. HomeKit is a technical term and should not be mentioned in the APP.

If you are an MFi Certified manufacturer, please refer to the MFi portal's guide for accessory naming and message passing.

This article is compiled by CocoaChina from the apple Developer Center.

Original article: HomeKit User Interface Guidelines

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