Light that reacts to you

Presence-led lighting should be judged by whether it helps a person use a space, not only by whether a device detected movement.

A resident enters a utility room carrying laundry, stays to sort it, and leaves with both hands full.

Think beyond the first movement

Presence is the continuing fact that a person is using a space; a person-facing outcome is what should help them there. A motion event may be an input, but it is not the same as the occupant’s whole experience.

For the utility room, the arrival outcome is useful light while carrying laundry; the stay outcome is light remaining helpful during sorting; the departure outcome is a room that no longer needs that assistance. The lesson does not set a timer or sensor rule.

Splitting arrival, stay, and departure produces a better review than one vague statement such as “light follows motion.”

1. Label arrival, stay, and departure in the scenario.
2. Write one occupant outcome for each.
3. Choose one observation that would show the stay outcome.