Truly useful domestic technology fades into the background. Too many smart home screens demand centre stage.The Apple HomeView, image credit: Apple.Apple’s latest foray into the home automation market is the HomeView, a 7 inch touch screen with integrated speaker designed to sit in a communal living space like the kitchen or dining area. It sounded pretty pedestrian, a competitor to Google’s Nest Hub or Amazon’s Echo Show, but something about it just felt a little off. Couldn’t the iPad already do most of this? My design brain kept asking, what problem is the HomeView solving?The pitch: a shared screen at the kitchen tableI thought the best place to understand the intended use cases would be Apple’s ad for the HomeView. Light-hearted and cinematic, it takes the perspective of a family that places the HomeView literally at the centre of their kitchen counter/table, and their life...