iRobot Air Purifier App | UX Design Case Study | Natalia Martin

Product Design Portfolio

The iRobot Air Purifier App is the mobile experience for iRobot's Klaara Pro and Klaara lite air purifier line — part of iRobot's broader push into home care beyond floor cleaning. iRobot acquired Aeris Cleantec AG in November 2021 for $72M, its first acquisition outside robotics. I had been working on the Aeris app pre-acquisition and continued into the merged team as Senior UX Designer, initially alongside the Principal UX Designer leading the New Business Team, and later as sole UX owner through the Japan launch after team changes in early 2024. The initial build shipped as a standalone app in six months and later migrated into the main iRobot Home app.

Role

Senior UX Designer

Timeline

1 yr. 3 mos.

Services

UX Design, UI Design, Prototyping

Year

2022–2023

Industry

Smart Home / IoT

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Roomba's company app showing the new product on the screen: air purifiers

Project overview

Following the acquisition of Aeris Cleantec, the air purifier experience was rebuilt as part of the wider iRobot ecosystem. I joined the project as Senior UX Designer, working alongside the Principal UX Designer leading iRobot's New Business Team, and continued as sole UX owner through the Japan launch after the team was restructured in early 2024. In parallel I supported the small UI team hands-on as the UX phase wrapped, and ran UX on iRobot's air purifier company web and ecommerce site — covered in a separate case study.

The project focused on improving usability, simplifying information architecture and creating a more connected smart home experience through features such as Teaming, which enables air purifiers and robot vacuums to work together automatically.

Challenge

Air quality is often difficult for users to understand. Metrics such as particulate matter, allergens and pollutants can feel technical and overwhelming, especially for users who simply want to know whether the air in their home is healthy.

The challenge was to design an experience that transforms complex environmental data into clear and actionable information while providing effortless control over connected air purification devices.

Flowchart from air quality data to insights, actions, and a healthier home with icons and arrows.

Research & Insights

Methods

Started from Aeris' air quality research corpus — which I'd worked with directly during my time on the Aeris app pre-acquisition — combined with existing user studies from the main iRobot Home product.

Analysed how users monitored and interpreted air quality information.

Collaborated with stakeholders and product teams to align user needs with technical requirements.

Key findings

Users were more interested in understanding air quality than manually controlling the device.

Technical environmental data was often difficult to interpret.

Users preferred automated experiences over frequent manual adjustments.

Solution

The solution focused on making air quality information easier to understand while giving users full control over their devices through a clean and intuitive interface.

Complex environmental data was translated into meaningful insights, allowing users to monitor their home environment, adjust purifier settings and automate routines with confidence.

Mobile app screen showing indoor AQI 25 moderate, outdoor AQI 100, AQI history graph, and outdoor pollutants.

A simplified dashboard provides real-time visibility of air quality conditions, purifier status and key environmental indicators.

Mobile app screens showing air quality schedules, AQI history graphs, and pollution levels with color-coded categories.

Environmental data was presented through clear visualisations and simplified explanations, helping users better understand changes in indoor air quality.

Two smartphone screens displaying Klaara A7 air quality control app with indoor and outdoor AQI and fan speed settings.

Core controls were designed to make adjusting purifier settings quick and effortless, allowing users to manage their devices with minimal interaction.

What we tried first

Before landing on the three-mode structure (Sleep, Fast, Manual), we explored more granular ways to expose fan control. Initial concepts included a linear slider mapped to raw fan speed values (1 to 5) and a dial with numeric setpoints. Both surfaced the same problem in early feedback: users had no mental model for what "speed 3 of 5" actually meant. The interface was exposing the machine's language, not the user's intent.

A similar tension appeared in early analytics explorations. First-round concepts showed live PM2.5, PM10 and VOC readings as separate numeric values, with historical charts for each pollutant. Testing surfaced that most users couldn't interpret whether a specific reading was "good" or "concerning" — the numbers didn't translate into action. We collapsed the raw data into a single semantic air quality state (Clean / Fair / Concerning), with the detailed pollutant breakdown one tap deeper for anyone who wanted more.

Both discarded directions share a lesson we kept applying: showing more data isn't the same as helping people make sense of it.

Key Features

Real-Time Air Quality

Live air quality monitoring helps users understand the condition of their indoor environment at any moment.

Air purifier with indoor AQI 25 and outdoor AQI 100, showing outdoor pollutants MP 2.5, CO2, and pollen levels.

Environmental Insights

Historical trends and environmental data provide deeper visibility into air quality changes over time.

Air quality charts showing indoor and outdoor AQI trends and PM2.5 exposure over time on November 9, 2022.

Smart Device Control

Users can easily manage purifier settings, operating modes and automation preferences from a single interface.

User interface showing fan controls with power, manual, auto, night modes, and fan speed levels from 1 to 5.

Teaming

Teaming connects air purifiers and robot vacuums, allowing devices to coordinate automatically and create a more intelligent home cleaning experience.

App screen for linked cleaning with a robot vacuum and air purifier syncing in a kitchen area.

Key Decisions

Prioritising air quality visibility over device controls

Research and stakeholder discussions revealed that users cared more about understanding their indoor air quality than manually adjusting settings. The experience was designed to make air quality insights easier to access and interpret.

Simplifying purifier management through predefined modes

Rather than exposing advanced controls by default, the app relied on predefined modes such as Sleep, Fast and Manual to reduce complexity and support quicker decision-making.

Creating a connected ecosystem experience

The linked cleaning feature was designed to automatically trigger purification after cleaning sessions, reducing manual effort and reinforcing the value of the broader iRobot ecosystem.

Outcome

The project delivered the mobile experience for iRobot's first in-house air purifier line — a dashboard organised around air quality visibility rather than device controls, a three-mode structure (Sleep, Fast, Manual) replacing granular fan-speed sliders, and Teaming as the connective tissue between purifiers and Roomba robots.

By simplifying complex environmental data and introducing intelligent automation through features such as Teaming, the app helps users maintain healthier homes with less effort and greater confidence.

The experience I worked on later reached consumers through iRobot's first air purifier, the Klaara p7 Pro, launched in Japan on October 20, 2023 with iRobot Home integration and automated coordination with compatible Roomba robots. The product received the GoodsPress Air Purifier Grand Prize 2023 and third place at the Japan Home Appliance Awards 2023–24. The broader global rollout was paused following the collapse of the Amazon acquisition of iRobot in January 2024 and the subsequent company-wide restructure — a business decision unrelated to the design or its reception. What travels forward: starting from 'what does the user want to know' before 'what do they want to control' has become a lens I apply to every product with ambient states, where sensors are doing work in the background and the interface's job is to build trust in that work rather than just expose knobs.

Three smartphones displaying an air quality monitoring app interface showing indoor and outdoor AQI levels, schedule, and pollution details.

Five smartphone screens showing setup instructions for a robot vacuum, including ensuring phone Bluetooth is toggled, phone proximity within 10 feet, and robot is docked and charging.

Top-down view of multiple smartphones on a green surface displaying an air purifier app with schedules, pollutant data, AQI history, and smart map features.