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Minimal Thermostat Design Visually Disappears When You're Not Using It

tado°, by industrial design consultancy Pong

By Rain Noe - March 31, 2023

in Object Culture | UX

No one likes looking at a thermostat, so if you're designing one, what do you do? Berlin-based industrial design consultancy Pong designed this ultra-minimal tado° thermostat to visually disappear when not in use.

"All tado° products are characteristically smooth and unobtrusive, allowing them to blend into any home," writes Pong. "Bright colouring and simple shapes fused with an intuitive interaction makes tado° the perfect match for every household."

"With the smart thermostat we introduced an as yet unseen display technology to the world of IOT products. By back-lighting the LED dot matrix, we made a display on demand possible, resulting in a product that looks perfect whether on or off. This sets tado° apart from all other home tech products with their noisy screens."

The system comes in multiple configurations and can work with both boilers and radiators, wired or wireless. (Yes, sadly it's an IoT-capable device.)

There's also a little iMac-like stand (fitting, as it's sold in Apple stores) if you'd rather not have it on the wall.

"tado° proves that a product development which is fundamentally design driven ensures a user-centred experience that encourages sustainable business success," writes Pong, which has been working with tado° since 2014.

"Over the past few years, tado° has gradually grown into the leading smart climate company in Europe while simultaneously drawing increasing attention from the internal tech scene. Their products are sold in all Apple stores across Europe and they have even been elevated to the Google partner program. [The company] is ranked as one of the rare, future, German hardware unicorns."

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Anthony Towers

a year ago

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The thermostats in my house are just white squares with a hidden until using display. this is nothing new.

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Leandro Heck

a year ago

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What do you mean by disappears? This is something that any device should have. A way to turn the lights and sounds off. THIS should be a law, actually. Seriously.

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Zach W

a year ago

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Not sure this qualifies as "disappears"..... Make one that actually embeds into the wall then you've got something. Even when it's off this large plastic box is more intrusive than a classic Honeywell circular thermostat.

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- Juan Cano
  
  Zach W
  
  a year ago
  
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  Have one with a screen in the front and you can upload a photo of your wall to be the background and then it will disappear. Then it comes with a beeper so you can find it later on. The Nest turns off as well; don't all digital thermostats 'disappear' already?
  
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