All case studies
Challenge
An Italian manufacturer was engineering a modular thermo-hydraulic controller for residential heating — a central unit reading 15 probes and driving 11 outputs, with wired and wireless I/O modules. The hardware was progressing; the control software did not exist, and without it the unit was not a sellable product. All that existed was two voice messages, a handwritten pin sheet and a monitor mockup — against a target cost of €300–600 per installation versus roughly €1,200 for equivalent certified boards, and an interface that has to be usable by non-technical people over 60.
Approach
- Transcribed the client's voice messages in full and reconciled them line by line against the handwritten pin sheet — every channel carries an explicit confidence level
- Translated "usable by someone over 60" into testable numbers: 8 mm real digit height, 12 × 12 mm touch targets, WCAG 2.2 AA contrast, verified on the tablet actually installed
- Froze a data model that absorbs any plant configuration, so adding a module never requires an app release
- Fixed the boundary: control logic lives in the controller, never in the app — the house stays heated if cloud, phone and wall panel all disappear
- Specified a device-client abstraction so the whole interface can be built and demonstrated on a simulator before the hardware exists
Results
22 engineering questions closed — each answered outright or reduced to a single stated, challengeable assumption
Two hardware gaps found on paper, not on site: no output exists for the shading actuators, and no probe exists on the buffer tank the mockup displays
Two phantom channels traced to misread handwriting and removed before they reached firmware
Interface and firmware now proceed in parallel against a simulator, instead of in sequence behind the hardware
Technologies
ReactTypeScriptPWAViteESP32-S3RS-485 / Modbus RTUMQTT/TLSAWS (eu-south-1)