For most smart-home devices, an accompanying app serves as a control hub, providing access to advanced features and detailed information that make the device “smart” and set it apart from traditional analog products.

Designing these apps isn’t straightforward. Many interactions happen remotely or are delayed, meaning that users can’t always see whether a command worked. Clear, immediate status feedback is essential for giving users the confidence that their devices are doing exactly what they expect.

Why Good App Design for Smart Devices Is Critical

A well-designed smart-device app is more than just an improved remote control, it’s the key to unlocking the full potential of a smart device. Beyond basic on/off commands, it can enable advanced settings, create custom automations, provide rich status information, and coordinate multiple devices at once — often in ways that other control options, such as on-device buttons or voice assistants can’t match.

Core Benefits of Smart-Device Apps

• Control from anywhere: Users can operate their devices whether they’re in another room, on their way back home from work, or on vacation across the world.
• Advanced settings: Apps often enable advanced options, such as directing a vacuum to clean a specific room in the house.
• Automations: Users can schedule or trigger device actions automatically, reducing repetitive tasks, cognitive load, and user friction.
• Multi-device orchestration: A single app can manage multiple devices simultaneously, streamlining control, increasing efficiency, and reducing the need to learn several different interfaces.
• Information-rich dashboards: Apps can display data like current temperature inside and outside the home, or real-time water and energy usage.

Together, these benefits help users achieve the main reasons they choose smart devices in the first place: greater convenience, resource savings, enhanced safety, and better access to information.

Unique Design Challenges

While these benefits are significant, designing apps for smart devices comes with specific UX challenges. Unlike standalone apps, smart-device apps function as an extension of the physical product, so the design must consider not only the app interface but also how it works in harmony with the device itself.

• Multiple control modalities: Users might switch between app, voice, and on-device controls; each of these modalities supports different interaction patterns and should be considered in the app design.
• Low visibility of actions: Some changes in the device’s state can be obvious, like lights turning on, but others are invisible, such as activating motion detection for a camera, or locking a door from afar. Thus, prompt feedback and status updates are critical for good app design.

The combination of high-value benefits and these unique constraints means that app design isn’t just about usability, it’s about ensuring that users can trust their smart devices to perform exactly as expected.

7 Best Practices for Smart-Device Apps

Smart-device apps succeed when they make the device’s current state obvious, communicate progress clearly, and streamline routine tasks. The following best practices address the most common needs when designing for remote, often invisible interactions.

1. Allow Users to Categorize and Name Their Devices

Most users of smart devices have many smart devices in their home — often controlled via just one or few apps. Thus, apps must allow users to categorize and name their devices so they can easily differentiate and access them. In smart homes, this categorization is typically based on the rooms where the devices are located.

Beyond improving the speed and ease of device access, naming also introduces a playful element that can increase user delight. It can even foster anthropomorphism, where users attribute human-like qualities or personalities to their smart devices.

2. Make Device Status Instantly Clear

Because observing and changing device status are the primary functions of a smart-device app, these actions must be instantly visible and effortless to perform — ideally with a single click or tap. When users open the app, they should immediately see the status of every connected device, without navigating into individual screens.

The overview can show basic, essential information (e.g., on/off, locked/unlocked, heating/cooling), while a tap into the device view can reveal more details and controls. Even in the detailed view, the current status must remain prominent so users never lose track of what the device is doing.

3. Combine Color, Iconography, and Text

Clear device status isn’t just about showing it, it’s about making it instantly recognizable and unambiguous. Using multiple cues in combination ensures that users can interpret status correctly in any context. Strong status indicators should include all of the following:

• Color for quick scanning
• Icons for recognition
• Text for explicit meaning

This approach also supports accessibility: if one signal (e.g., color) is unclear to a user, the others still convey the information. Consistent use of these elements across the app builds familiarity, reduces errors, and speeds up decision-making.

4. Make Progress Toward Goals Visible

When a device is performing a task that takes time — whether vacuuming a room, heating water, cooling the house, or running a laundry cycle — users need to know how far along it is.

Without this feedback, they may wonder if the device is working or waste time checking it in person. Showing progress helps users plan, builds trust, and gives them confidence that their settings were applied correctly.

One participant in one of our research studies was talking positively about their washing-machine app:

“It gave me continual progress [updates] and even [notified me] when it ended.”

Ways to communicate progress include:

• Time remaining: Show how many minutes are left until the task is complete.
• Completion percentage: Provide a numeric or visual indication of how much of the task is done.
• Status animations: Use visual cues (e.g., spinning fan, moving cleaning map) to show the device is actively working.

5. Reduce Repetition with Shortcuts

Smart-device interactions often involve repeating the same actions, such as turning lights on or off, adjusting the thermostat, starting a vacuum, or activating motion detection for cameras.

If the app forces users to redo these steps manually each time, it creates unnecessary friction and frustration, especially if multiple devices, such as lights or cameras, are involved.

By offering shortcuts and reusable configurations, the app can save time, reduce cognitive load, and make users more likely to engage with advanced features.

“I do the same things most every day. I run the vacuum in the same way with the same rooms most every day. […] I check the cameras, […] and I check it most every day.”

Ways to reduce repetition include the following.

• Reusing existing settings: Allow copying or duplicating schedules, scenes, or automations.
• Quick actions from overview: Let users trigger common commands without opening the full device view.
• Bulk-editing tools: Enable adjustments for multiple devices at once, such as turning off all lights in a room or activating motion detection for all cameras at once.

6. Provide Immediate and Informative Feedback

Without immediate feedback, people are left wondering if their command was received or if the device is actually doing what they asked.

As many users control their smart devices from afar — from another room or even outside the house — visibility of the device and its status can never be assumed. This makes immediate and unambiguous in-app feedback essential.

Clear feedback reassures users that the command was received and is being executed, prevents repeated actions, and builds trust over time. If something fails, the app should also explain why and suggest steps to resolve the issue.

One participant shared her strong frustration when an app didn’t give her any feedback:

“It was so annoying, because I would edit the schedule and not receive any feedback that it was changing, and I’d go back to check on it, and the changes wouldn’t show up, […] there wasn’t a way to know if it was just a delay or if it didn’t save what I was changing.”

7. Allow Setup and Modifications of Other Control Channels

Most smart devices can be controlled through multiple channels, such as through the app, with on-device buttons, or via voice assistants. The app should function as the central hub for configuring the device and adjusting input through all channels. Without this capability, users may struggle to take advantage of advanced features, or worse, they may not trust that different control channels work consistently together.

Design considerations

• Provide clear voice-control setup: Offer simple flows to connect and configure voice assistants (e.g., Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri). Show confirmation when setup is complete.
• Enable advanced voice options: Let users go beyond simple commands, such as setting up a voice shortcut that starts a specific vacuuming routine or adjusts multiple lights at once.
• Allow customization of on-device controls: Give users control over what physical interactions do (e.g., a long press or double press of a button).
• Offer child-lock settings: Include the ability to activate or deactivate child locks directly in the app. A child lock disables on-device buttons to prevent accidental changes by children.
• Ensure cross-channel consistency: Synchronize updates across all control channels. If a device is renamed or reconfigured in the app, reflect those changes in voice and on-device controls.
• Confirm changes with feedback: Clearly display updated configurations in the app and confirm that they are active.

One participant described how she uses the app to activate Child Lock on her air purifier. This deactivated all on-device buttons and ensured that her baby wouldn’t accidentally change any settings.

“I have child lock on my air purifier because the baby will mess with it.”

Conclusion: Apps are the Bridge Between People and Their Smart Homes

Smart devices promise convenience, efficiency, and peace of mind, but those promises hold only when the companion apps that power them are thoughtfully designed. From making device status instantly clear, to increasing the range of control, to reducing repetition with shortcuts, good app design is what makes smart devices truly smart.

Ultimately, these apps are not just remote controls. They are the bridge between people and their homes, and their design directly shapes whether users trust their devices to do what they expect.

By focusing on clarity, feedback, and support, designers can turn moments of frustration into confidence and make smart homes feel truly effortless.