INDUSTRY:
TECH
CLIENT:
CONCEPT
YEAR:
2025
EXPERIENCE:
PRODUCT
Aquro: Smart Shower
about.
A work in progress concept Smart Shower System that will simplify and amplify your premium shower experience
challenge.
Alright what am I looking at?
The task is to create a smart shower that checks most if not all the boxes of users online, and to answer a simple question.
"What even makes a smart shower smart in today's world?"
research
Okay but do you know the first thing about smart showers?
Short answer - YES - BUT, before diving into the field, I had no idea, I had used smart showers multiple times but I never understood why they are called "smart" and not just multifunctional.
So I first set out to research the current market of "smart" showers, here's what I found out
The Current Offerings:
Moen Smart Shower
Kohler DTV+
Kohler Anthem +
Time to find out what people think:
6 user interviews and 95 Amazon and Reddit reviews. Fed the reviews to Ai and had it find pros and cons and provide me with a detailed summary of everything that people were talking about. Then merged the interviews and the reviews together to find a common link.
Here werer the results:
The Pros:
One-tap presets & auto-warm-up save time (MSS)
Clean “no-knob” aesthetic
Deep spa integration (6-port valves, steam, light)
Touch screen feels “luxury hotel”
Multi-outlet temp precision; looks “like high-end audio gear”
Users love three-port valve for future expansion
Voice activation for simple and fast commands
Multi-user presets
Connecting with your phone
Lighting can change the whole shower experience
Precise temperature control
Eco mode to save water
The Cons:
Expensive, EXPENSIVE, and even MORE EXPENSIVE
No manual flow control
App & cloud limited to US region; outages kill presets.
Very difficult plumbing / requires access panel / x2 price to fix
Wi-Fi pairing “finicky” & no HomeKit
Touch screens are an absoulte nightmare in showers “ghost-touch”
No offline feature, if the power is out, you can't shower
Outdated apps and systems
Too complicated for older people
Laggy interfaces and random reboots
Okay so what's your solution?
I'm glad you asked hypothetical person! My solution is Aquro!
Simple Radial Design
Rotate = quantitative change (°F, %, Lux)
Single Press = confirm / toggle
Press‑and‑Hold = open radial submenu
Double‑Press = Quick‑Off safety stop
Key Screens
Temperature – live value + color halo
Water – flow ring + outlet toggles + Eco slider
Lighting – brightness ring + scene icons - Color customization
User / Stats – profile chips + individual consumption graphs
Key features so the user isn't annoyed:
Temperature Control – Safe and precise adjustments via rotary dial with visual feedback
Water Flow & Outlet Modes – Toggle and control Rainfall, Wand, and Jets independently
Eco Mode – Optional low-flow mode integrated directly into the Water screen
Lighting – Select brightness and scenes (Morning, Relax, Sunset) with smart sync options
Music Integration – Bluetooth pairing and control from the knob interface
Steam Activation – Control timing and aromatherapy integration (if enabled)
Voice Assistant – Alexa/Siri/Google Assistant integration. (optional)
User Profiles with Stats – Auto-load preferences via NFC + individual water usage logs
Settings – Device pairing (smart watch, smart rings, phones), haptics, firmware updates, child lock, and factory reset
Offline Reliability – Fully functional without phone or cloud
result.
Okay, so now it feels multifunctional but what makes it smart?
Perfect question, and the answer lies in the following bullet points
Wearable Recognition: NFC/BLE handshake loads the correct user profile before you touch the dial.
Adaptive Flow Logic: Turbine sensor + on-valve PID loop auto-balances pressure when multiple outlets are on, so rainfall stays soft even if body-jets kick in.
Environment-Aware Screen: Humidity sensor boosts LCD back-light & dampens haptic motor so feedback is still perceptible in a loud, steamy stall.
AI-Eco Engine: Edge algorithm watches your duration + seasonal water-temp delta; after three showers it proposes a shorter ramp and shows projected annual savings in dollars on-device, no phone needed.
Predictive Pre-Heat: Learns daily cadence; if you typically shower at 7 a.m., Aquro starts heating the valve 60 s prior, shaving wait-time and wasted cold water.
OTA Self-Improvement: Micro-updates add new gestures (e.g., “double-twist to pause”) without hardware swaps; installer never returns. (All updates are optional so the user doesn't feel like the company can just remove certain features they prefer)
Self-Diagnosis & Push Notification: Detects flow-rate drop ↔ prompts “Clean wand filter?” (with step-by-step guide on screen). (No more plumber visits that end in half an hour and end with 1/3 of your bank account gone)
In Practice
Approach → Aquro sees your Smart Watch → lights dial halo aqua.
Press once → it already knows you’re a “Spa-Seeker,” starts at 102 °F, 60 % flow, Spa Glow lighting.
Mid-shower → you open the wand; dial auto-ramps pump to keep rainfall constant.
Done → summary shows 7 gal, 6 min, Eco ★★★★☆, plus “Next time: save 1 gal by lowering flow 5 %”.
Cloud down? All of this logic still runs locally.
Result: Aquro behaves like an adaptive appliance, anticipating, guiding, and optimizing, rather than a fancy control panel with a dozen manual modes.
this was fun.
Well I never thought creating a smart shower would be this entertaining, but thinking about just walking in and my shower is already ready and it just turns on automatically and I just have to walk in and walk out. THAT is crazy to me, feels straight out of a Blade Runner movie. I believe it would be a bit more fun if I can have AI generate better images, but the single image was more than enough to give me space to create all the UI and for the UX to flow as I imagined it to. I also would like to the time to create the whole scene in Blender, but for the time being as I work on this further, the AI pics will have to do. Do please check out the figma file to see more details on everything.
