OME Smart Doorbell
With Ome we set out to create a smart doorbell that was simple and intuitive to use, worked with the interior and exterior of the home and wasn’t overly technical to use or look at.
The Ome smart doorbell allows you to hear and talk to your visitor from the comfort of your sofa or outside the home. Wherever you are, the product works like an intercom on your smartphone.
Visitors press the doorbell that sits outside your front door and the chime speaker alerts you inside your home. At the same time the user will be connected through the app via a simple voice call. The product comes as a set, a fabric-covered chime speaker and a smart doorbell in either a brass or charcoal finish. Secure, encrypted voice calls are made over your home WiFi and there are no hidden subscription fees for the service.
We designed and manufactured the product in the UK. We work on the project from the first sketch through to manufacture and retailing on amazon.
Doorbell Button
The doorbell uses simple voice calls, to make the connection to your smartphone nice and quick. It’s also slim and understated so it doesn’t distract from how lovely your door looks.
Interior Chime
When away from your phone, the Chime, acts as your doorbell’s speaker that lives inside of your home. Hear it sound whenever someone is at your door.
The rest of the time it looks good, amongst the rest of your furniture, with its Kavadrat fabric cover.
App
Set up in seven steps, install without professionals and receive voice calls straight from your doorbell.
You just relax and our app will do all the work in the background.
How we made it.
We began the project with rudimentary technical prototypes for proof of concept. Moving on to paper protoytpes to explore different functionalities and user experience. After considering the target market we decided to focus on a simplistic voice-based version of the product, instead of introducing video. This combined the simplicity of communication with the idea of creating a smart home product which wasn’t tech-cluttered but included just the right amount of tech. We then moved on to explore forms, further market research to understand our user and explore interaction and user experience to understand where the products would sit within the home.
After extensive product development, we came to the final design, which excellently united the two parts of the product, doorbell button and chime, yet distinguished their individual uses.
The ‘button’ has a super slim profile so that it can be fitted to any door frame, and is made from robust materials to suit the outside of your home: a texture polycarbonate plastic body, paired with an optional brass button and engineered seals to make it weather resistant. Whereas, the ‘chime’ is made from soft materials, including Scandinavian Kavadrat fabric with branded fabric tag, making it sit well alongside other home interiors, but still subtle enough not to be imposing.
We then worked on refining the industrial design. Working with Instrument Industries and our manufacturing partners. Together we took the conceptual model and tweaked the form to be suitable for injection moulding, developing the tech alongside this to fit all components within the mould. One of the biggest challenges was engineering the product so that it maintained a slim profile. We also worked closely with our manufacturing team to develop the process for casting the brass buttons and upholstering the chime fabric. As we chose manufacturing partners within the UK, we could work closely to oversee processes. We even assembled the first products off the manufacturing line ourselves.
