INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT): A UNIVERSE OF NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR UX DESIGN

The time when the designer had to worry only about drawing beautiful screens, fortunately, has been lagging behind in most companies and institutions that have already understood the great potential of this professional. In addition, new technologies, including the much-talked-about internet of things, chatbots make accessible a number of new possibilities for solutions never seen or used before by consumers and users.

In this scenario, the designer with his background based on pillars such as empathy, psychology, creativity and problem solving starts to play an extremely strategic role within companies.

An important point to consider is that with the new technological products and new standards there is a whole universe of differentiated interactions that will often reflect in learning curves, more or less complex, and that require a special care in terms of usability. Imagine you an elderly user having to deal with wearables, a smartwatch for example, and having to learn to relate and "control" this product with a series of peculiarities that are not part of your mental model or products of the day to day, The challenge may be significant in some cases.

Natural Interfaces and Interactions

Despite this, we know that trends lead to solutions to ways where commands are much more natural and inherent in human nature. The scheme below shows a bit of our evolution of the commands that came from the command line interface, not focused on the user where he was forced to speak the machine language, to the respective evolutions through the graphical user interface and The "natural user interface" where we are currently in full evolution, exploring possibilities linked also to voice commands and the very anticipation that leads to "zero interface".

The fact that the internet of things already pre-supposes that we are not exclusively talking about "computers" or "screens" and "clicks" but rather about objects and "things"  already brings us closer to the idea of

what is natural to humans in Your day to day life, apart from having a considerable upgrade with the fact that these things are connected and integrated with each other in a much smarter way to serve our needs.

"Internet of things is a technological concept in which all the objects of everyday life would be connected to the internet , acting intelligently and sensually."

Potential barriers to good experiences in IoT

As all New Technology the challenges of " onboarding " or initial understanding and engagement in the use of the product are always possible problems to deal with. In the context of the internet of things this barrier encounters some potential extra problems inherent in the nature of this type of solution (so far). Some points to be observed:

1. Connectivity problems and network instability

Especially considering that we are still talking about a connection in "Brazil reality", dealing with weak, intermittent or simply unavailable network signal can be a very recurring concern in products that have their basis in connection and internet networks.

When we interact with physical products we are not accustomed to having to wait for loading to get feedback or a return from action, our mental model makes us think almost automatically, unlike a system or a site that is "relatively" acceptable Wait for a loading or "processing".

2. Multiple interfaces and commands to each different product

Different from thinking about the experience of typical digital devices like computers, smartphones, tablets or even interactive panels, when we talk about "things", it's practically "anything goes".

Although we do not have many consolidated standards, each device can react to its own type of command and have a particular input area, even when we have several integrated products. Even if my car is connected and can play my Spotify there, when I ask for my refrigerator to open that same app the path and commands can be totally different. We do not yet have a general controller (and I do not even know if we should necessarily have it) or a coherent and standardized line between the commands of my different products even though they are increasingly connected to each other.

3. Need for precise and specific commands

Another difficulty of UX in the internet of things is that as natural as it tends to be the commands of these products, most of them still require a certain specificity to understand what I want it to do. Although we are talking about objects that are often known in our life in the physical world, different from digital and online interfaces full of clicks, buttons and features we had to 100% learn and interpret, how to communicate with these artifacts still requires Minimum alignment between the parts.

The voice commands are great examples of this, now that I can "talk" with my cell phone or my sound box so that it reproduces the news of the day for me, supposedly everything would just be joy, after all we already know how to speak for a long time. The reality However it is a little less colorful and dependent on the right tone and words.Who has never stressed out by testing voice commands when he hears the girl's annoying feedback saying that she "did not understand you" or even suggesting that we should "talk later".

The gesture commands also still ask for specific gestures; if you are not doing as the programming expects you to do, you may experience some discomfort until your action is understood and accomplished.

4. Usually actions of the physical world can not be "undone"

We have already learned throughout our experiments that a Ctrl + Z, a "undo" or a "cancel" can make a big difference between a simple error and a catastrophic disaster. In the physical world this becomes more complicated because not all actions are "undoable." We do not expect it to be possible to undo a glass that falls to the floor and breaks like a door that opens after the command of a remote key could not go back in time and "unmask" (even if it meant a mistake and you were leaving a Unwanted visit to your house).

Another point is that many IoT solutions are remotely controlled or automaticallytriggered (from sensors, for example) and this ends up reflecting a loss of control and breaking the immediate idea of action X visible and reversible consequences to which we become accustomed to the products physicists.

Good examples of things + UX internet projects

Here is a selection of some products that are already rolling on the IoT vibe and delivering interesting solutions. As we get to know and see more connected products, it becomes easier to get new ideas from it, so it is worth knowing as much as possible about what has gone around.

Amazon Dash
Gadget that scans barcodes, to buy products that are gone, such as toothpaste and food

Birdi
Smoke detector integrated with app, which warns you when something is wrong in your home.

Amazon Echo
Central to control all your Internet devices from things by voice commands

Tagg
Track your pet by GPS, and show you the data on your PC or mobile

Cloudwash
Mobile app-driven washing machine

Neo
Smart pot, which controls its amount of cereals

Canary
Uses machine learning and crosses data of vibrations in the air, sound and images of the camera to understand if something strange is happening in your house

Blossom
Creates an irrigation pattern for your garden, based on its location, climate and other data

Ankuoo
Smart plug for electrical outlets, which allow you to count the energy spent on each piece of equipment, and disconnect the power supply from appliances

Lifx
Illumination connected to the cell where you control color, intensity and light sets

 

And the next steps?

The fact that designing and thinking about the user experience of products in the physical world very much resembles "product design" but with an extra layer of complexity since you do not have to worry about just what happens "there and now" and yes With a whole network and integrations and possibilities of automations. The challenge is far greater, as are the possibilities of applying creativity and visualizing non-obvious connections from users' needs and pains (which I find particularly fascinating :)).

The authors state that when we are talking about designing for the internet of things, much needs to be considered, not just the "obvious" layers that we are accustomed to in a visible web interface, it is an interaction that encompasses other technological and strategic elements.

"Designing a great connected product requires a holistic approach to user experience. Covers many design layers, not all of them immediately visible. More than ever, it requires collaboration and work between design, technology and business. "

There is a specific book on this relationship between IoT and UX, the " User Experience Design for the Internet of Things " (it is possible to download the free ebook in the link ) and other online materials going around that is worth giving a check.

In order to generate better solutions we will necessarily have to understand the technological possibilities of the sensors, devices, products and from this to use as raw material this knowledge to generate ideas that reach the full potential of existing solutions . Designers and UXrs not coming from the technical area will inevitably need to immerse themselves in this more "hardware" issue of the thing to be able to have the balconies beyond the study of interactions and new patterns, conventions and affordances that will enable the use of this type of interactive artifact by users who Still has a long learning path ahead. 

Many paradigms and standards will still be broken or reinvented, the caveat is that a good UX project, product or web, always starts with validation.