# i-Homotic: from word of mouth to a digital presence that earns trust

- **Client:** i-Homotic (GELECT S.A.S)
- **Year:** 2026
- **Role:** User research, interactive site experiences and coordination of a team of 6
- **Tools:** Figma, Blender, Three.js, React

Capstone project with a real client: a complete experience strategy so a home automation company can stop depending on word of mouth. It included an interactive website, a trade fair stand proposal and a brand manual.

## The context

i-Homotic is a Colombian home automation company with a solid technical
offer: locally manufactured hardware and software, no monthly fees, and
voice assistant integration. Their problem wasn't the product but the
visibility: customers arrived only through word of mouth, and when someone
interested asked to "see the website" before talking, they found nothing
and ruled the company out before starting.

This was our final semester project in Interactive Design (EAFIT): a team
of 6 people, a real client, and success criteria defined by the founder
himself. My role combined user research, the design of the site's
interactive experiences, and much of the team coordination.

## The key design decision

We said it from the project's rationale onward: **the challenge wasn't
technological, it was communicative**. The 15 research interviews defined
the target user: the "Informed Explorer", a homeowner aged 30 to 55 who
validates suppliers digitally before hiring them. And they revealed a
decisive pattern: people don't believe in home automation because of what
they are told, but because of what they can try; and they adopt it by
gradual expansion, starting small.

That's why the site doesn't inform: **it lets you experiment**. That's
where the interactive elements I designed came in: a budget and energy
savings calculator that lowers the perceived financial risk before the
first contact, and an explorable 3D map of an automated home, built with
Three.js, where the user walks through the spaces, sees which devices each
one would have, and moves straight from there to contact with an "I want
this in my home".

[Image: Service Blueprint diagram for the i-Homotic website in purple tones, structured into Discovery, Exploration, Evaluation, Contact, and Follow-up phases, showing client actions, frontstage, backstage, and support processes]
[Full-size image: https://juancamilo492.online/evidencia/i-homotic/service-blueprint.png]
Website Service Blueprint: mapping interactions, physical evidence, and backend support processes to convert the Informed Explorer’s initial curiosity into direct contact.

## What we delivered

The project delivered a complete communication ecosystem:

- **Website** with six views, bilingual ES/EN, with the interactive
  experiences integrated and live in production

[Image: Screenshot of the Price Calculator tool on the i-Homotic website, showing home type selection and the project estimation summary panel]
[Full-size image: https://juancamilo492.online/evidencia/i-homotic/sitio-interactivo.png]
Four-step price and budget calculator integrated into the website to lower perceived financial risk before making first contact.

[Live site (Live): Visit i-Homotic website — https://i-homotic.vercel.app/]
The official website is live in production featuring the home automation catalog, interactive price calculator and 3D map.

- **Stand proposal** for the Plaza Mayor Design Fair: 7×7 meters, a route
  through stations with real devices to handle, plus the technical
  implementation document and a scale 3D model navigable on the web

[Image: Realistic render of the i-Homotic booth at the Feria del Diseño, showing the house-like architectural structure with violet LED lighting, visitors interacting in the residential space, and an info desk]
[Full-size image: https://juancamilo492.online/evidencia/i-homotic/stand-render.png]
Spatial proposal for the Plaza Mayor Design Fair: 7×7 meter booth structured as a liveable home to experience smart devices first-hand.

[Live site (Demo): Explore 3D stand model — https://eafit-enfasis-ux.github.io/I-Homotic-Stand/]
You can walk through the three-dimensional scale of the booth directly in the browser via the interactive prototype.

- **Brand manual** of 18 pages as the single source of identity for every
  channel

Beyond the interactive experiences, I took part in the research
interviews, integrated the stand's 3D model into the site, designed social
media mockups following the brand manual and iterated on the stand model
(the final model was made by a teammate).

## The validation

We ran 39 sessions with 17 participants: a task-based cognitive walkthrough
of the site and a Likert scale for the three deliverables. The results
drove concrete corrections, and they also produced uncomfortable findings
that we reported as they were: the task of "figuring out which solution to
start with on a small budget" was the bottleneck of the journey, and the
brand manual's documentation of incorrect uses scored 2.4/5. Both became
prioritized improvements.

[Image: User archetype profile card for Eliana Restrepo The Informed Explorer showing demographic data, personality traits Methodical, Cautious, Aspirational and usage scenario]
[Full-size image: https://juancamilo492.online/evidencia/i-homotic/investigacion-arquetipo.png]
Archetype card for the "Informed Explorer" defined during user research: a 42-year-old, methodical and cautious homeowner requiring digital validation before hiring.

## The outcome

The success criteria defined by the founder were met: the site passed the
digital validation filter with **all 16 participants** in the target profile,
and the company was left with formal presentation material ready: a live
site, a brand manual and a 3D model of the stand.

On the Likert scale, the three deliverables exceeded the 4.0 threshold:

- **4.8** for the willingness to schedule a visit
- **4.6** for pedagogical clarity, without jargon
- **4.6** for how useful the interactive experiences were for picturing the
  solution in one's own home
- **5.0** for the stand, both for sparking curiosity about the brand and for
  communicating that home automation is accessible, not just for luxury
  houses

> "It looks really nice, it looks professional. I loved the map."
> — Validation participant

## What I learned

Working with a real client who defined their own success criteria changed
how I understand design. At university, success is defined by a rubric;
here it was defined by the founder, with concrete goals: pass the digital
validation filter, end up with formal presentation material. That forced me
to design toward a verifiable north: every decision had to answer "does
this bring us closer to the criterion?" and not "does this look good?".

I learned that a client's criteria don't limit creativity: they focus it.
And that reporting compliance against those criteria transparently,
including what fell outside the scope and what scored badly, builds more
trust than pretending the delivery was perfect.

Website: https://i-homotic.vercel.app/

Source: https://juancamilo492.online/en/projects/i-homotic/