1. What’s different about UX
for the internet of things?
ThingsCon 2015
Claire Rowland - @clurr Image: Disney Movie Year

2. Hello :)
- Independent UX and product
consultant
- Lead author: “Designing
Connected Products: UX design
for the consumer internet of
things” (due May 2015)

3. My grandfather could probably have told you how many electric
motors he owned. There was one in the car, one in the fridge, one
in his drill and so on.
My father, when I was a child, might have struggled to list all the
motors he owned (how many, exactly, are in a car?) but could have
told you how many devices were in the house that had a chip in.
Today, I have no idea how many devices I own with a chip, but I
could tell you how many have a network connection. And I doubt
my children will know that, in their turn.
Benedict Evans
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/5/26/the-internet-of-things

4. Visions of IoT often look like this
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/heck-internet-things-dont-yet/

5. …but the reality can be more like this
‘It’s a bit glitchy but it’s OK, you just have to be in
the room at the same time’.
Actual review of a connected home system

6. It’s not just UI and industrial design

7. Facets of IoT UX

8. Image: Nissim Farim
We don’t (yet)
expect Things to
behave like the
Internet
The average consumer is
going to find it very strange
when objects take time to
respond, or lose instructions.

9. 3 part diagram:
Value
proposition
Conceptual
model
Interaction
model
What does it do? How does it work? How do I use it?
Image: Instructables Image: How It Works Daily

10. Value propositions:
Solve a tangible problem

11. Mass market
products should
- Solve a real problem people
have (value)
- Offer a good solution
(desirable, usable)
- Come at a cost (financial,
effort) that feels in proportion
to the value

12. Product Tool
In areas where they don’t have expert knowledge or are short on time
consumers need products, not tools

13. Nest do productisation really well

14. Belkin’s mobile app is good, but
a connected socket is a tool
that requires users to solve
their own problems

15. This is a product

16. Conceptual model:
Connected products are more complex
to understand

17. Conceptual models used to be simple

18. Connectedness requires users to think
about system models
Which bit does what? Where does code run? What fails/still works if connectivity is lost?

19. You can explain the system model...
BERG Cloud bridge: transparent network comms

20. Or you can make
the conceptual
model simpler
Users will get more
familiar with connected
products… but not for a
while

21. Using it:
Interusability: coherent UX across the
system
Cross-Platform Service User Experience: A Field Study and an Initial Framework. Minna Wäljas, Katarina Segerståhl, Kaisa
Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Harri Oinas-Kukkonen MobileHCI'10

22. Functionality should be distributed to suit the context of use
AKA composition

23. Consistency
Create device-appropriate interfaces that feel like a family

24. Continuity
Dealing with latency, reliability and intermittent connections
BERG Cloudwash prototype

25. service UX
…has my action been executed or is it still in progress?
Has it worked? Why/why not? How will I know if it fails?

26. …the right solution depends on context

27. …intermittency can also cause discontinuities
devices that are out of sync can give different status information
19
2 min delay
21

28. Designing for interconnected devices:
Handling complexity

29. A simple platform for a few
devices is one thing...

30. • but this is a world of single apps, single devices,
single hub
But we want things to work together
video by Ericsson
Ericsson

31. Technical interoperability is a huge issue

32. But getting things to work together in
common sense ways is also crucial
Add to: lighting controls?
security system?
both?

33. alarm video
lighting heating
temp.schedule
security
Relationships quickly get complicated…

34. …and then some
alarm videotemp.schedule
schedule
security
controls
lighting baby appliancessafety
energy
smoke medicine
controls
heating

35. notificationsservices
controls
devices presence
contacts
user needs
The UX platform challenge:
creating the logic that
drives sensible
interrelationships

36. A final thought
Good consumer UX for IoT is
surprisingly hard

37. 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

38. Thank you
@clurr
claire@clairerowland.com