Dr. Smart Home Makes A Scene

Clap If You Think You’re Smart

So here’s the million-euro question I keep hearing, again and again: what actually makes a home smart?

Some people still swear it means clapping your hands and—ta-da!—the lights go on. (Yes, that thing from cheesy ‘80s TV ads. Shockingly, it still exists. No, I don’t recommend it unless you want your dog barking at the TV to also trigger your kitchen lights.)

Others dream of the sci-fi version: homes dripping with sensors, endless automations, triggers upon triggers until the house practically develops a personality disorder. And to be fair, that’s closer to what I’d call genuinely smart. Add some AI, and your home might start texting you life advice too.

But here’s the truth: before we even get to the Hollywood part, there’s a boring, unsexy, roll-your-eyes basic thing that must be sorted out first. Otherwise, you’ll move into your shiny new smart home and instantly hate it.

That thing is… manual controls.

Manual Controls: The Ugly Truth

I know, I know. Nobody wants to talk about light switches when they could be bragging about their solar panels, geofenced garage doors, or a voice assistant that can (sometimes) understand your kids. But let’s face it:

👉 90% of all smart home interactions are still done manually.

Yes. With boring, good-old push buttons. Why? Because we’re human. We walk into a room and—click—the light comes on. It’s subconscious. Hard-wired.

And no, it doesn’t matter if one person in the family is obsessed with automation. You will never, ever design enough automations that your in-laws, kids, or guests don’t at some point just reach for a button. Manual control is not negotiable.

Why Modern Homes Are a Button Apocalypse

Now here’s where it gets messy. In “the good old days,” control was easy: one room, one light, one switch. Done.

But modern design? Oh no.

• One living room → 5+ lights.
• Blinds? Of course. Motorized, naturally.
• Add dimming, tunable white, colors, and more.

And suddenly, what used to be one flick is now a wall of buttons straight out of a spaceship cockpit. In my own living/dining/kitchen area, I have 9 lights and 3 blinds. That’s 12 elements to control. Which means: 12 buttons. Which means: goodbye subconscious living, hello button Olympics.

And this, dear reader, is why so many people move into their “dream smart home” and immediately think: what have I done?

How We End Up With Walls Full of Buttons

It’s not a coincidence. There’s a process problem behind it:

1. Architects care about aesthetics, button design, and placement, but almost never functionality.
2. Electrical designers are usually subcontractors, disconnected from the client. They think in old-school terms: one switch per light, one button per motor.
3. Lighting designers come in later and multiply the number of lights by 1.5–3×. They rarely think about control.
4. Because there are now more lights then switches, the electrical designer is called back in and their solution is very straighforward. Just add more buttons.

The result: walls cluttered with switches. And a frustrated homeowner.

At this stage, the only salvation is the smart home integrator.

The Integrator’s Dilemma

A good integrator recognizes the problem, talks with the client, and redesigns the control layout—often remapping push button panels, proposing changes, and coordinating with the electrical designer.

But here’s the catch:

• It takes time and effort (often unpaid).
• Clients don’t always understand the value until they experience the problem themselves.
• Many installers avoid the headache and stick to blaming the original design.

Only the more dedicated integrators push through the extra meetings, iterations, and coordination to make sure the client actually enjoys living in the home. It’s hard work, but it makes the difference between a smart home that frustrates and one that delights.

The Real Fix: Scene-Based Push Buttons

And this is where scenes come in.

Scenes are the foundation of smart living. They let you control an entire room—or even the whole house—with a single button press. Instead of 12 buttons, you have 3 or 4 carefully chosen ones.

This is what makes control feel subconscious again.

A few examples:

• All Off – for leaving or going to bed.
• Cooking – functional brightness in the kitchen.
• Evening – a cozy mix of dimmed lights.
• Movie – the perfect ambience for watching TV.

It doesn’t take many. Just a handful of thoughtful scenes turn chaos into calm.

Even better is when the system allows you to edit and fine-tune scenes yourself. Over time, you’ll naturally adjust brightness and color temperature to match your routines. Having the ability to save those tweaks without calling your integrator is a big plus. After all it's impossible to plan perfect ambients without seeing those ambients with your own eyes.

A Pro-Tip: Multi-scene push-buttons

Scene buttons do have one quirk: if the scene is already active, pressing the button again does… nothing. That creates a subtle but annoying feeling that the system isn’t responding.

My solution? Toggle between two scenes on a single button.

Here’s how you do it:

• Trigger: button press.
• Condition: check if a certain light - unique to one of the two scenes - is on or off. If you don't have such a light you can also choose another condition that is specific to one of the scenes (certain dimming percentage of a light etc.)
• Action: activate the scene that fits the condition.

This way, the button always “does something,” keeping control intuitive and satisfying.

Let me give you a concrete example from the Dr. Smart Home dwelling. We need two evening scenes in the living area - and these are controlled with the same push button:

• One press switches to “Evening TV” scene (dimmed, cozy).
• Another press toggles back to a brighter “Evening More Light” (better for reading or talking).

On the screenshots below you can see how I created these scenes with Scene editor within my 1Home local dashboard. The third screenshot shows a part of my automation (done with Automations editor within my 1H Dashboard) that binds the created scenes to a push button (long press in this case) through a condition that checks if Palma Light is on or no.

I have been thinking to create more scenes with different brightness levels so that whenever you would push the button the scene would go one brighter and then loop around - but that would probably be hard to explain to other house members who are generally not very fond of me instructing them on how they have to control the home.

The Takeaway(s)

I guess the major takeaway should be to fix the basics before going into Star Trek mode with smart homes. A smart home is not defined by how many sensors or AI-powered features it has. It’s defined by whether people can live in it comfortably—without friction, without confusion, without endless fiddling.

That comfort starts with manual controls, and the most powerful tool we have for making them simple and intuitive is scene-based push buttons.

If you’re building or designing a smart home for yourself or someone else, don’t underestimate this. Scenes are not a optional. They’re the foundation. Take time to explain this to the client and implement it in every project.

As a bonus takeaway I would only say this - when you are planning your smart home, have your lighting solution ready and in the final stage before the electricity design is completed. It will save you a lot of time & money and will generally contribute to a better fina result.