Dimplex.
Smart UI for smart home heating.
For many years, we've worked with Dimplex to improve its smart heating control apps. Our latest project brought together Dimplex Connect and Dimplex Capa to create the new CapaConnect app, uniting legacy and innovation in one clear, easy-to-use design that gives users better control, comfort and energy savings.
Sectors
Expertise
Background.
An app that had to grow as fast as Dimplex's product range.
The main goal was to design an app that would let users control all their devices easily, no matter how Dimplex's products expand in future.
The challenge wasn't merging two systems alone, but making sure the app could grow with Dimplex's product range. Whether it's heating or new products like air conditioning, CapaConnect needed to be flexible and ready for the future, providing a smooth, reliable experience for users, while keeping the brand identity strong and consistent.
The Solution.
A visual identity and interface built to scale.
Designing a visual identity that connects today's range with tomorrow's.
One of the first tasks was to define a visual identity that aligned with both Capa's brand and future product expansions, such as air conditioning. This meant selecting a colour palette that supported the current heating products while ensuring the design could scale to more diverse systems in future. We carefully created a visual language, including the app icon, that felt consistent with the Dimplex brand while leaving space for future products and partnerships, helping build a unified, user-friendly experience across all devices.
Building an interface flexible enough for every product type.
Creating a seamless experience wasn’t just about looks—it was about function. We studied user feedback from the legacy apps to understand common pain points and design an interface that would simplify complex heating controls. The challenge was ensuring that different product types, each with unique features, could be controlled in a single, unified layout.
Flexibility was key. With new products in the pipeline, the interface needed to be adaptable for future expansions. We carefully designed layouts and navigation patterns that could accommodate different heating systems without overwhelming users.
Another crucial requirement was compliance with accessibility standards. The UI was built to meet AA readability guidelines, ensuring clear text, high contrast, and intuitive interactions for a global audience.
Let's work together
Let's partner to create brand, product, and experience solutions that move people and markets.
Simplifying scheduling for three different types of user.
We designed the scheduling system to be easy to use while giving users control. Research showed three main user types: those who want to save time, those who focus on energy efficiency, and those who prefer quick comfort adjustments, each with different needs, from flexible scheduling to simple manual controls.
A common issue was confusion between Eco and Comfort modes and how to adjust temperature across a whole site, so we removed unnecessary steps to make overrides instant, and used clear labels, visual cues and smart defaults to make settings easier to understand while keeping options flexible.
Testing confirmed these changes made scheduling more intuitive, with users finding it easier to copy schedules, navigate settings and make manual adjustments when needed, and feedback highlighted further areas for refinement, such as greater control over manual temperature adjustments and clearer distinctions between modes.
The impact.
An app built to keep evolving, one tested feature at a time.
Every feature was only introduced once it reached a high completion rate, 60 to 80%, during extensive user testing, ensuring every update delivered a meaningful improvement. By continuously gathering user feedback, we've helped shape an app that evolves alongside Dimplex's smart home ecosystem, keeping it intuitive, adaptable and ready for future expansions. The collaboration continues to reinforce Dimplex's position as a leader in smart home heating solutions.
