Architecting Nexia & ComfortSite experiences

The brief

Ingersoll Rand’s Nexia / ComfortSite ecosystem served homeowners and technicians across diagnostics, thermostat control, and mobile workflows. The products sat in a constrained B2B/B2C space: legacy surfaces, multi-actor journeys, and an SDLC that required design to partner tightly with PM and engineering.

The non-negotiable was clarity under complexity — technicians diagnosing systems, homeowners managing comfort, and features that had to ship without breaking trust.

My role

UX Architect & Interface Design Engineer. Ownership included:

Information architecture for ComfortSite / Nexia Diagnostics
Thermostat and Nexia mobile experiences (homeowner and technician paths)
Feature definition and design across 54+ shipped capabilities
Usability studies and synthesis into product decisions
Day-to-day partnership with product management and engineering in the SDLC

Process

Map the real actors — Homeowner vs technician mental models; reduce cross-contamination in IA and UI patterns.
Architect before decorate — Flows, structure, and diagnostics clarity first; visual polish second.
Study under real conditions — Usability studies and customer surveys used to develop, prototype and workflow new features.
Ship in the SDLC — Design as a peer in planning and delivery, not a handoff theater.
Feature systems, not one-offs — Pixel-perfect prototypes, requirements and style guidelines for thermostat interfaces and the Nexia mobile apps.

Whiteboard IA, usability rigs, test stations, sketches and 3D-printed enclosure prototypes.

Thermostat usability study rig: a touchscreen mounted on a wall with a camera pointed at it — Thermostat usability study rig.

User-testing stations arranged around a round table — User-testing stations.

Whiteboard sketch of wireless sensor information architecture: show, name, status — Whiteboard IA for wireless sensors.

Pencil wireframe of the Trane storefront home page on graph paper — Storefront home page, pencil wireframe.

Hand holding a grey 3D-printed enclosure part during a fit check — 3D-printed screen enclosure prototype, fit check.

Grey 3D-printed hub enclosure prototype — 3D-printed hub enclosure prototype.

The system

Nexia Diagnostics, thermostat and ComfortSite surfaces, with the competitive storefront scan. Diagnostics screens are concept comps with placeholder content.

Nexia Diagnostics alerts panel: error code, technical problem and probable cause, with alert history and analysis — Nexia Diagnostics: alert → technical problem → probable cause (concept comp, placeholder content).

Nexia Diagnostics run-time history chart with zone temperatures, setpoints and humidity — Nexia Diagnostics: run-time history with zone detail.

Trane ComfortSite storefront home page design — ComfortSite storefront: home (concept comp, placeholder content).

Nexia thermostat demand-response home screen — Nexia thermostat: demand-response home screen.

ComfortSite: user profile.

Strip of peer B2B storefront home pages used as research — Competitive scan of peer storefronts.

Detail & identity

The AOC control-board label, from engineering need to applied artwork, and the storefront palette.

AOC control board label, step 1: the engineering need — 01 · Engineering need

AOC label, step 2: designed label outline — 02 · Designed label

AOC label, step 3: enumeration of terminals — 03 · Enumeration

AOC label, step 4: final product artwork — 04 · Final artwork

AOC label, step 5: label applied to the board — 05 · Applied

Trane storefront color palette and scratchpad — Storefront palette and scratchpad.

Out in the world

The label shipped on the board; the wireless sensor instructions shipped in the box.

AOC control board with the finished label applied — The label, shipped on the board.

Printed wireless sensor instructions unfolded on a table — Wireless sensor instructions, printed.

Instruction sheet folded next to the sensor device — Folded with the device.

Outcome

Delivered UX architecture and interface design across ComfortSite / Nexia Diagnostics, thermostat, and mobile — including 54+ features shipped in partnership with PM and engineering. The work emphasized usable structure for multi-actor product complexity rather than surface polish alone.