I've been a Hubitat user for about three years now. Thought I would share some things I've learned from the experience, in the hope it might be useful for others. These are the rules that I've found work well for me. YMMV.
Rule 0- Remember the goal.
The goal here is improve the living conditions of my home using off-the shelf smart home technology, while having fun doing it.
It's a hobby, not a requirement. Old school ways are perfectly acceptable. If it won't work, put in a dumb switch and worry about it later.
Rule 1- Remember your audience.
Another way of putting this would be, Do what people expect. Be conventional. The goal isn't to change how people have been living with electricity and electric lights for a hundred years. The goal is to add on to that with added capabilities, mostly automation. The worst sin here is to be annoying. Rule 1 addendum. Never be annoying.
Rule 2-Not every light needs a switch, but most do.
I am defining "switch" here broadly. Some sort of physical device that allows a human to control the light. My goal is actually to make it so nobody would ever need to touch a switch in my house. The idea is to anticipate what they will want and give it to them before they know they want it. But, even if I could do that completely, the switch is for the exception. If anybody ever asks you how to turn on or adjust something that you are okay with them adjusting, you need a switch. How often those switches are being used is a good measure of how well you are doing with your setup. Hallways are easy. The family room is probably impossible. I have found, that when it comes to accent lighting, it's pretty easy to get it so well automated that nobody ever wants a switch. In that case don't bother.
Rule 3-Try to make it intuitive.
Do what people expect and are used to. eg, Up is on, down is off. Switches control lights either at the light or at the entrance to a room, etc. No wheel reinventing needed. In the case of most automated lighting, the intuitive thing is the lights coming on at the right level and color temp when a human walks into the room, and staying on until they either leave or want them to turn off. Rule 3 addendum. Labels are not intuitive, they are ugly.
Rule 4-Make heavy use of scenes.
Scenes are the real secret to good smart lighting. You'll notice people don't actually care which bulbs or fixtures turn on when the lights come on. They care that the lighting is at the right level, and sometimes the right color temperature. Figure out what lights will give you that proper level at the proper time and very few switches will be touched. In addition, buttons should always activate scenes. For example. My Pico buttons give the user 5 different scene options with off on the bottom and the most commonly used one on the top.
Rule 5-Try to avoid manual dimming.
The big exception to this is dimming with a knob. These have been around for decades and are very intuitive. But dimming by holding down a paddle switch is annoying and hard to get right. There are situations where there is no way around this. But it's best not to expect people to do this on a regular basis. And god forbid, don't try to set this up manually on something like a Pico or Hue using the "released" option. You'll create an annoying monstrosity that nobody will ever use. Ask me how I know?
Rule 6-"held" is better than "double tap", but using neither is better
Both are unintuitive and annoying. They should really only be used for the next rule. But if you must, held is better because it can't vary with the switch. Hold the button 'til the thing happens and then let go, pretty simple.
Rule 7-Make secret options
Why you would want to do this is up to you, there are good reasons. Sometimes it's just for fun. Things like "hold", "double tap", or "released" can be used to set up those options.
Rule 8-Lock things out
You are the king here. You run the home, and there are reasons you don't want people messing with things they shouldn't. For example, I pay the electric and gas bills. Which means I get to set the thermostat. It doesn't change unless I allow it. There may also be lights you don't want turned off or other devices you don't want people changing. Some devices have a way to disable physical control in their settings. In other cases you can create rules to accomplish it. But lock out what needs to be locked out.
Rule 9-Color is usually unnecessary.
Most of the color bulbs I have never get put in color mode. Save your money and get a decent bulb that changes color temp, that's all you ever need in most cases. Color is useful for warning lights and sometimes accent lights. I have a color bulb in the garage that changes color based on the temp in my garage freezer and some color accents above my kitchen cupboards.
Rule 10-Ask for feedback
People will put up with slightly annoying things for a very long time, because it's too much trouble to fix them. If you want a good smart home you have to be open to feedback. If something is annoying people, or not working right, you need to know about it. Let people know you welcome the feedback. If they know that you enjoy fixing the problems, that it's a hobby not a chore, they'll be more likely to let you know when something is wrong. If you feel annoyed by the feedback, refer to rule 0.
Thanks for reading. What are your rules for a good smart home?
You hopefully get the idea....
