Dave, my milk is going

The UX of Internet of Things

Tommy Sundström• UX and strategy, at Helt Enkelt

• Användbarhetsboken/The usability book

• Worked in Internet of Things projects for smart offices and heart monitoring

• Writing a book on Internet of Things

What is the Internet of Things?

Mobile phoneNetwork

Basic components of a thing

Brain Processor & Model

Muscles Actuators

Senses Sensors

Sensors• Things are aware of their environment

and/or of their internal state

Processor/Model• Sensor data is useless

• Needs to be translated

• Making sense of data is much harder than collecting it

Actuators (Ställdon)• Some things are able to change physical reality

• Many things ”borrows” the users muscles

Network• All things are connected to the Internet

• …or something equivalent (military, medical)

The things are not what they seem

A thing…

…a team• The function is often built

using a team of physically separated components

• Sensors

• Hubs

• Actuators

• User interfaces (often perceived as the ”thing”)

…the real thing• The extension of a ”traditional” IT system

• Input directly from physical reality (GPS-position of bus)

• Acts directly on physical reality (once we have self driving buses)

• Interface adapted the situation

New UX challenges• Less administrative input—systems will ”read”

physical reality themselves

• …and output—systems will act on physical reality themselves

• Essential parts of UX ”hidden” in the model(if the model is not correct, it cripples user experience)

• More information & interaction

• …in the most appropriate form, when needed, using the most efficient channel

types of things4

Dataharvester

Big Data

User

Marketing

• Targeted advertising—everywhere(Image: Personalized billboard from Coca-Cola)

• Detailed information on every aspect of the customer’s life

• Detailed information on how the product is used

• …and in what environment

Data fetichism• Lazy visionaries—Internet of Things will be like Google

• Marketing

• It is assumed that collecting a lot of data atomagically will produce knowledge

• Optimization of products, workflows and organisations

UX challenges• No one likes a spy – be invisible or at least discrete

• …or give more than you take

Data harvester• Observes – in order to big data-analyze

• Typically asynchronous – results of the analyze is not used in the situation

• Marketing (learn about the user)

• Optimization

• Monitoring & Maintanance (including many health applications)

• Typically totally dependent of the Internet

Interactor

• Engages the user

• Acts by persuading the user to act. The user is the actuator.

• Shopping. Your history and how you move in the store effects what offers are shown on in store screens—and on the web

The intelligent city• Find a

parking spot

Quantified self (Self discipline)• Training • Eating • Sleeping

Everywhere-shopping• Amazon Dash (button,

automatic, bar-code reader, voice order)

Entertainment• Interconnected toys • Virtual reality • Cyber sex

UX challenges• Engagement

• By being useful or fun

Super powers

New senses• Absolute orientation • Simultaneous translation • Remote touch • Mind controlled flight

UX challenges• Translating data into the most useful, intuitive form

• Making the interface fit the situation

Robot

Robot• Acts independently

• Home automation

• Self driving cars

• Industrial production

• Self-checkout in supermarkets

UX challenges• Finding the best way for the user to express what she

wants the machine to do

• Sometimes: Learning from user behavior

In the industry “Internet of Things” is just a new name for something that they’ve been doing for a long long time

UX

If you start with a technical perspectiveSensor →

Processor →

Actuator

”Let’s…

…build a tea kettle you can control from your phone!!”

…build a fart-meter”

Internet of Things is the new Second Life• A symbol of the future

• Attracts early adapters, for whom the technology is the value

• Early success can be a trap

• Early adapters likes to configure & are willing to invest time

• Mainstream consumers are not

How do we avoid building the

Internet of Stupid Things?

Methods

Start with user & business goalsSensor →

Processor →

Actuator

= Product

Why? For whom?

← Business/User goals

← What functionality?

← What model?

← What data?

← What sensor?

Ideal, but not innovative

Tech is often the source of ideas• You won’t get an idea like this,

if you start with user needs

• Possibility-driven design

• When technology develops rapidly,user needs can not be the creative driver

Technology

inspires

User-orientation

gives focus

Understand the user, and the environment

Environment• Is the user doing something else at the same time?

• Social context—other people can often see you when using a thing

• Shared usage—things are often used by several persons

• A swarm of things—your thing is not the only one wanting the users attention

User journeys*, experience maps

* Setup is often a frustrating part of the experience

Service design & touchpoints

• Many things are parts of a larger context or service

• Medical

• iBeacons (in-store offerings on the phone)

• Service design & touchpoint maps are methods to cover the full context

System thinking• The coffee maker in Oxford—probably the

first Internet of Things-thing

• You can see if there is any coffee, before you go to the kitchen

• But—new coffee is mostly made by someone who comes to the kitchen and discover that there is none

• Result: Empty most of the time

• We’re not designing things, we’re designing systems

Prototyping Arduino + 3D-printers makes high-fi prototypes fairly cheap

But never underestimate the power of quick prototyping

Things already sold will be the Google Analytics of IoT design• …if they call home and report usage patterns

With remote configuration they can be used for A/B testing

Return of the waterfall

Production starts

The end of agile?• Physical production often has many dependencies

(specially for consumer products)

• Christmas

• Production slots

• Features (described in documentation, retailer info, marketing material etc.)

• Continuous development hard

• Distinct product generations (the marketing logic of something new and shiny)

Agile philosophy still useful when prototyping & for products that essentially are computers

Mistakes are expensive—so easier to get a test budget• …hopefully

• Design and starting production are expensive for physical products (compared to digital)

• The cost for misstakes are higher$

DiffsHow IoT-design differs from digital

More senses• Digital: eye + ear

• IoT: + haptic + acceleration + sound + presence + brainwaves + electrodes effecting balance + …

Focus is often on something else

Symbiotic relation to the user• Thing and user cooperates

• The thing analyzes data and present them to the user in an accessible form

• The user makes the decisions

• The user is the actuator

Interfaces* of Things

* Technically, the interface is usually a set of sensors.

Men are mice

• Presence (and to some extent body language) replaces mouse/touch

• We all carry a remotely readable barcode:our phone

• Used when identity of the useris needed

• Example: The heater in your house starts working when you are on your way home

Zero interface• We will have to deal with (to) many things every day

• Solution: Zero interface. No interaction, it just works

• Sometimes the user is not even aware

• (Topp, here in Malmö, is an active proponent of this ideal)

• But, to be quiet is to be forgotten

• Will brand managers accept that their products do not attract attention? (Anti-virus do not need to, but do)

Gestures• Works well for natural and cultural gestures.

• Works well if you have only a few things.

• But, does not scaleWith many things, will you remember them?

• Will gestures be a common interface?

• My guess: No.

Voiceis likely to be a major interface for the Internet of Things

…and buttons (knobs, levers, etc.)• Oldie but a goldie

• Direct connection between control and effect

• Labeling is good for UX

• Has its limitations—almost useless for configuration and complex actions

…and apps• Configuration, complex actions and remote

control, will be handled with apps

Will the phone replace the buttons?• Phone:

• Cheaper

• Easier to set up

• Button

• Easier to understand (?), and to use

Is anthropomorphism a good idea?• Should things behave like humans?

• Should things look like humans (or animals)?

• Should things talk like humans?

Yes, it is• Humans relates strongly to things that appears to be alive

• Soldiers in Iraq did not only name their robots, they formed emotional bounds to them.There were incidents when soldiers risked their lives to save their robot.

But don’t fall into the uncanny valley

Johnny Cab, from Total Recall

Challenges

Many physical things (like sea turtles and refrigerators) has a long life span

Computers (like dragonflies) has a short life span

Internet of Things expects them to marry and live happily together

It took Samsung Smart TVs less than a year to lose functionality

How do we make this a happy marriage?• The computer/smart phone way:

Throw away hardware after 2-4 years

• Can smart recycling make this viable?

• The set top box way: Loose coupling. Switch box every other year, keep screen

The industrial and the digital designer• The industrial (physical) designer’s culture:

• No errors

• Late changes or recalls is extremely expensive

• The digital designer’s culture:

• Time to market

• No need to be perfect, better get experience and fix it in next version.

One thing—no problem

Multiple things is a kindergarten screaming for attention

How many things are we willing to take care of?• How many things-controlling apps can we have?

TV has taught consumers to fear interconnected technology

Risk is part of the value proposition• Will this work, or will I have to spend countless hours

waiting for telephone support?

• Specially when connecting different brands

Accessibility• More senses involved

• + Environment

• = New demands on accessibility

The calendar tells your house that you have a date with Sara. Your refrigerator has checked with Saras refrigerator for allergies and preferences, and ordered the ingredients for a romantic dinner. Your car informs the house that you will arrive in 30 minutes, and the oven…

The calendar tells your house that you have a date with Sara. Your refrigerator has checked with Saras refrigerator for allergies and preferences, and ordered the ingredients for a romantic dinner. Your car informs the house that you will arrive in 30 minutes, and the oven…Will not

happen

Downton Abbey of ThingsSorry, but there will be no butleranticipating your every need

(There will however be a chauffeur)

Integrity

IoT designer ethics• Users are—sometimes—extremely concerned about

integrity

• When is it ok to spy on the user?

• Internet of Things will observe our lives in greater detail then Stasi ever did. Do we always have to know this much about our users?

• Is a blockchain (Bitcoin) model a feasible way to build Internet of Things?

A turnkey police state

To be continued• Facebook: Internet of Things Sverige

• Webb: http://www.anvandbart.se/blogg

• tommy@heltenkelt.se

• 070-213 09 20

ImagesEye Ben Mortimer. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Brain Licensed by Google creative commons. Muscles Natalie Prigozhina. Creative Commons Attribution License Telephone Smartphone Italia. Cative Commons Processor/Model Diagrams …a team Image with many things: Mark Moz. Creative Commons Big Data – User StormSignal. Creative Commons Zoltar – Engages the user MagicNumberSix Super Powers Xurble Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Agile philosophy kk+ Creative Commons 2.0 (by-nc-sa) Sea turtle Brocken Inaglory CC BY-SA 3.0 One thing Shindigz Party Creative Commons