UX for connected products

Claire Rowland / @clurr

EuroIA, September 2016

Practical differences designing for systems combining software and connected embedded devices

www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/launch-plans-for-serving/2410778.html

•Product/UX strategy consultant

•Specialising in IoT, particularly connected home/energy management

•Lead author of Designing Connected Products

Me…

We’re putting computing power, machine learning, sensing, actuation and connectivity into ever more objects and systems in the physical world

autonomoustractor.com

grenzebach.com sjm.com august.com

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/heck-internet-things-dont-yet/

- …

Visions of IoT often look like this

…but the reality is often new ways to fail

‘It’s a bit glitchy but it’s OK, you just have to be in the room at the same time’. Actual review of the Wink hub

State of play

•Technology is still maturing

•Lots of products of dubious value (especially in consumer realm)

•Interoperability is poor

•Software and physical things are very different in terms of product development and user expectations

•We’re still figuring out business models, security and privacy

“We are experiencing some minor difficulties with a 3rd party server.”

petnet.com

•Sense making?

•Distributed information?

The IA angle?

Image by Todd Huffman from Wikipedia

Today, we’ll focus on:

What’s it like working on connected products?

Myths of connected products

Via Pinterest, source unknown

Myth 1: Magic is a helpful design metaphor Magic is a thing we don’t understand and can’t control

Image via http://everystevejobsvideo.com/steve-jobs-speaks-at-the-academy-of-achievement-1982-audio/

“People used to think electricity was magic and then it just became normal.” Ann Light

A design model for IoT

Facets of IoT UXScreen layout. Look and feel

Most visible

Least visible

Conceptual modelHow should users think about the

system?

InterusabilityInteractions spanning multiple

devices with different capabilities

UI/visual design

Platform designTechnology enablers spanning

products/services

Industrial designPhysical hardware: capabilities and

form factor

Interaction designArchitecture and behaviours per

service, per device

Service designCustomer lifecycle, customer services,

integration with non digital touchpoints

ProductisationAudience, proposition, objectives, functionality of a specific service

UI and interaction

A variety of modalities

smarttthings.com, amazon.com, lutron.com, 3dsystems.com

Myth 2: Zero UI is feasible and desirable“Ubiquitous systems must contain provisions for immediate and transparent querying of their ownership, use, and capabilities. Everyware must, in other words, be self-disclosing. Whether such disclosures are made graphically, or otherwise, they ensure that you are empowered to make informed decisions as to the level of exposure you wish to entertain.”

Adam Greenfield (2006)

Lots of ‘IoT’ mostly or only has web or mobile UIs

onfarm.com

Industrial design

The process is very different from digital

seymourpowell.com

Practical and technical things considered at the same time as aesthetics and ‘superficial’ things like branding, visual impact etc.

Extra considerations for connected things: not blocking radio signals, fitting in electronics, adequate power

Form is only loosely related to function

Interusability: coherent system UX

Cross-Platform Service User Experience: A Field Study and an Initial Framework Minna Wäljas, Katarina Segerståhl, Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Harri Oinas-Kukkonen, 2010https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221270744_Cross-platform_service_user_experience_A_field_study_and_an_initial_framework

Deciding how to distribute functionality between devices/UIsComposition

tado.com

hivehome.com

Appropriate commonalities and differences between devices/UIsConsistency

nest.com

Continuity

- The flow of interactions and data in a coherent sequence across devices

- Continuity helps the user feel as if they are interacting with the service, not a bunch of separate devices

Image: Kei Noguchi via CC licence

Myth 3: IoT interactions are seamless

Image: Nissim Farim

We don’t (yet) expect Things to behave like the Internet

Latency

……………………………………………..

“Oh never mind”

[ding dong]

Nicolas Calderone via macsources.com

Delays between user request and system response

Intermittent connectivity

19

2 min delay

21

Devices are often designed to connect only as needed and can get out of sync

Conceptual model

Value proposition

Conceptual model

Interaction model

What does it do? How does it work? How do I use it?

3 part diagram:

Image: Instructables Image: How It Works Daily

How does it work, how might it break?

How much does the user need to know?

What actually happens All you need to know

Service design

Often the service is more salient than the things

Myth 4: IoT is all about things

Holistic service offering

vivint.com

Service design tools are useful for balancing holistic and touchpoint design

adaptivepath.com

Productisation

Product Tool

In areas where they don’t have expert knowledge or are short on time

consumers need products, not tools

Does the value of the product outweigh its risks?

Platform design: technology enablers

The UX you want to create will depend on technology enablers

solstice.com

•…

System architectures matter for UX…

•…

•If APIs are too coarse you can’t get the detail

•If they’re too granular, you’ll have to make lots of calls and do front end processing: this can be slow and risk inconsistencies

•If they’re the wrong structure this can also slow things down

You can’t create the right UX without the right APIs

“Uh, that new homescreen of yours is about 150 API calls on our current platform”

•App

•Cloud service

•Device firmware/software

•You need to know who to talk to about the functionality you want to build

UX decisions can impact code all over the system

Room: “kitchen”

Device: “oven”

The cool stuff (for IAs) is smart coordination between devices and servcies

Add to: lighting controls?security system?both?

1. Data about device capabilities

To be smart we need:

•I’m a lightbulb•I can be on or off•I can be x% dimmed•I can support x colours•My brightness is measured in lumens

•I have been on for 600 seconds•I have used 10 Watt hours since my last reset

2. Data about the context of specific devices

•I’m in the living room•I’m being used in the floor lamp

3. A system/domain model

4. An understanding of the wider context of use

http://www.apexselfdefense.com, My Mommy Manual (via Youtube)

ainsmag.co.uk

•Has to learn

•Might get it wrong

•May be annoying or dangerous

Machine learning Ontologies

•Effort to create

•Will anyone use them?

Tesler’s law of the conservation of complexity:

As you make the user interaction simpler you make things more complicated for the designer or engineer Larry Tesler, former VP of Apple

Thank you!

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@clurr | claire@clairerowland.com www.designingconnectedproducts.com