We tend to take our thermostats for granted. We want it warmer, we fiddle with the controls a bit. We want it colder, we fiddle again, only in the other direction. But is this any way to really get comfortable?

When White-Rodgers Climate Technologies, a division of Emerson Electric, asked us to help them design web and mobile interfaces for their new wireless thermostat, we decided to take a big step back. If we’re already shifting the paradigm from going to the wall to going to the web to change the temperature, we asked, why not shift the paradigm of the entire experience? That question opened up new possibilities, and the challenge shifted from adapting a traditional thermostat to the web to reinventing the thermostat.

We set out to make something so intuitive and simple to use that it would give people a true sense of control over their climate—and would make it easy for people to use their mobile devices to show off their cool new wireless thermostat, and spread the story.