IndiaAIFounders — Does Apple’s HomeView reduce effort, or ask for our attention?

Truly useful domestic technology fades into the background. Too many smart home screens demand centre stage.

The Apple HomeView, image credit: Apple.

Apple’s latest foray into the home automation market is the HomeView, a 7 inch touch screen with integrated speaker designed to sit in a communal living space like the kitchen or dining area. It sounded pretty pedestrian, a competitor to Google’s Nest Hub or Amazon’s Echo Show, but something about it just felt a little off. Couldn’t the iPad already do most of this? My design brain kept asking, what problem is the HomeView solving?

The pitch: a shared screen at the kitchen table

I thought the best place to understand the intended use cases would be Apple’s ad for the HomeView. Light-hearted and cinematic, it takes the perspective of a family that places the HomeView literally at the centre of their kitchen counter/table, and their life unfolds around it at the pace of a manic start-up during a morning scrum.

This staging overlooks a real limitation that would typically relegate this device to one side of the room, wiring. The HomeView is a wired device and needs to be plugged-in to operate, this means having it sit neatly in the centre of a kitchen table or counter is less likely unless you have a kitchen conference table complete with grommets.

HomeView’s hidden wiring, image credit: Apple.

I understand an ad will always tidy up reality, but this tidies away where the device can live. Even if the cable were invisible, the premise itself surfaces a questionable design choice. The dining area is the one place families try to keep screen free, this is proposing we put one in the middle of it and make it a focal point.

It was here I reached for a quick test I use on any connected product, does this reduce effort, or does it ask for attention?

Good home automation disappears

Back in 1991, Mark Weiser a computer scientist at Xerox PARC introduced the concept of ubiquitous computing with a simple observation: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” [Weiser’s Scientific American article]

These ideas were developed further by cyborg anthropologist Amber Case, into the Calm Technology Principles, an approach for designing more human-centric technology. The first principle is that technology should require the smallest possible amount of attention. It echoes the test I use on any connected product. Against this standard, HomeView is working against itself, it falls into a classic design trap, assuming that visibility equals utility.

Ubiquitous computing as envisaged at Xerox PARC, image credit: Scientific American.

I’m not averse to a smart home, in a recent home refurbishment I installed a lot of ‘smart-tech’ from connected HVAC systems, lighting, CCTV, multi-room music and internet enabled appliances. All the ‘smart’ features are accessed through an Apple screen mounted discreetly on my wall, a 2018 iPad. Funnily enough with all this home automation, after the initial setup — most family interactions are largely limited to playing music and checking the doorbell camera.

Home automation is designed to be exactly that, automated not demanding constant interaction. It’s very much fire and forget, I want it all to just work for me. Once heating schedules are set up for the season I rarely have the need or urge to alter them, for more routine controls like lighting, I have pre-programmed physical switches and dials. By way of the attention test these reduce effort and ask nothing from me, whilst a dashboard in the middle of the room, inviting interaction does the exact opposite.

A centralised dashboard is very much a highlighted feature of the HomeView. In the Apple ecosystem the Home app consolidates all your smart home tech in one place, this unification is the key experience all these providers from Amazon to Google are seeking to deliver upon.

”…a classic design trap, assuming that visibility equals utility.”

In reality the experience is not as seamless, as third-party manufacturers typically provide limited functionality via their APIs to the Home app. The remainder of functions are then only available through their own app, resulting in a fractured two-tier experience. This can leave the Home app feeling more like a hobbled remote control rather than a fully featured control centre.

My smart home hub, a wall mounted 2018 iPad in the corner of the room

So an eight-year old iPad, using each manufacturer’s own apps can largely perform the home automation functions provided by the HomeView, which brings me back to that central question, what is the real problem being solved?

The real problem being solved

The HomeView is actually addressing two problems.

A manufactured problem

In 2022 Apple knee-capped the Home app features on the iPad such that it could no longer function as a home hub. Support for the old version ended in February 2026. Simply put, if you want to connect smart devices via Apple’s centralised Home app you’d now need some of their home hardware, specifically a HomePod or Apple TV, citing their new software architecture requires a device that’s always powered-on and fixed in the home.

This feature unbundling opened an opportunity for a single-purpose product like the HomeView, where previously a more than capable multi-purpose device like the iPad could have and did serve this need.

Missing out on the AI race problem

The other problem being addressed is Apple’s position in the AI race. They may not be competing for the frontier, but with no real horse in the race they are strategically positioned to act as the gateway for how households access third-party intelligence. The HomeView acts as a pervasive gateway, that deepens ecosystem tie-in all whilst delivering a series of revenue streams. A little investigation shows that accessing certain security camera recognition features requires an iCloud+ subscription.

A test for connected products

A screen designed to draw your attention, image credit: Apple.

HomeView solves a number of strategic problems for Apple, just not that many real user ones. Herein lies the rub, a device that takes centre stage feels like it’s vying for my attention whilst not addressing that primary need of reducing effort.

“Home automation is designed to be exactly that, automated not demanding constant interaction”

Unobtrusive domestic user-centric experiences that borrow from the idea of ubiquitous computing are ones that fade into the background, and disappear into everyday life. These are the experiences that we can find most useful, demanding very little from us so we can focus our attention on things that matter more.

In a world filled with products craving our attention, we as designers can learn from the Calm Technology Principles and apply this mindful thinking to our own work, by starting with a simple honest question: does this reduce effort or does it ask for attention?

Does Apple’s HomeView reduce effort, or ask for our attention?