1. Dave,
my milk is going
The UX of Internet of Things

2. 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

3. What is
the Internet
of Things?

4. Mobile phone
Network
Basic components of a thing
Brain
Processor & Model
Muscles
Actuators
Senses
Sensors

5. Sensors
• Things are aware of their environment
and/or of their internal state

6. Processor/Model
• Sensor data is useless
• Needs to be translated
• Making sense of data is much harder than collecting it

7. Actuators (Ställdon)
• Some things are able to change physical reality
• Many things ”borrows” the users muscles

8. Network
• All things are connected to the Internet
• …or something equivalent (military, medical)

9. The things
are not what
they seem

10. A thing…

11. …a team
• The function is often built
using a team of physically
separated components
• Sensors
• Hubs
• Actuators
• User interfaces (often
perceived as the ”thing”)

12. …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

13. 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

14. types of things
4

15. Data
harvester

16. Big Data
User

17. 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

18. 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

19. UX challenges
• No one likes a spy – be invisible or at least discrete
• …or give more than you take

20. 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

21. Interactor

22. • 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

23. The intelligent city
• Find a
parking
spot

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

25. Everywhere-shopping
• Amazon Dash (button,
automatic, bar-code reader,
voice order)

26. Entertainment
• Interconnected toys
• Virtual reality
• Cyber sex

27. UX challenges
• Engagement
• By being useful or fun

28. Super
powers

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

30. UX challenges
• Translating data into the most useful, intuitive form
• Making the interface fit the situation

31. Robot

33. Robot
• Acts independently
• Home automation
• Self driving cars
• Industrial production
• Self-checkout in supermarkets

34. UX challenges
• Finding the best way for the user to express what she
wants the machine to do
• Sometimes: Learning from user behavior

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

36. UX

37. If you start with
a technical perspective
Sensor →
Processor →
Actuator
”Let’s…

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

39. …build a fart-meter”

40. 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

41. How do we avoid building the
Internet of
Stupid Things?

42. Methods

43. Start with
user & business goals
Sensor →
Processor →
Actuator
= Product
Why? For whom?
← Business/User goals
← What functionality?
← What model?
← What data?
← What sensor?
Ideal, but not innovative

44. 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

45. Technology
inspires
User-orientation
gives focus

46. Understand the user,
and the environment

47. 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

48. User journeys*,
experience maps
* Setup is often a frustrating part of the experience

49. 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

50. 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

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

52. But never underestimate
the power of quick prototyping

53. 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

54. Return of
the waterfall
Production starts

55. 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)

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

57. 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
$

58. Diffs
How IoT-design differs from digital

59. More senses
• Digital: eye + ear
• IoT: + haptic + acceleration + sound
+ presence + brainwaves + electrodes
effecting balance + …

60. Focus is often
on something else

61. 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

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

63. Men
are mice

64. • Presence (and to some extent body language)
replaces mouse/touch
• We all carry a remotely readable barcode:
our phone
• Used when identity of the user
is needed
• Example: The heater in your
house starts working when
you are on your way home

65. 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)

66. Gestures
• Works well for natural and cultural gestures.
• Works well if you have only a few things.
• But, does not scale
With many things, will you remember
them?
• Will gestures be a common interface?
• My guess: No.

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

68. …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

69. …and apps
• Configuration, complex actions and remote
control, will be handled with apps

70. Will the phone replace
the buttons?
• Phone:
• Cheaper
• Easier to set up
• Button
• Easier to understand (?),
and to use

71. Is anthropomorphism
a good idea?
• Should things behave like humans?
• Should things look like humans (or animals)?
• Should things talk like humans?

72. 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.

73. But don’t fall into
the uncanny valley
Johnny Cab, from Total Recall

74. Challenges

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

76. Computers (like dragonflies)
has a short life span

77. Internet of Things expects them
to marry and live happily together

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

79. 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

80. 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.

81. One thing—no problem

82. Multiple things is a kindergarten
screaming for attention

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

84. TV has taught consumers to fear
interconnected technology

85. 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

86. Accessibility
• More senses involved
• + Environment
• = New demands on accessibility

87. 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…

88. 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

89. Downton Abbey of Things
Sorry, but there will be no butler
anticipating your every need
(There will however be
a chauffeur)

90. Integrity

91. 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?

92. A turnkey police state

93. To be continued
• Facebook: Internet of Things Sverige
• Webb: http://www.anvandbart.se/blogg
• tommy@heltenkelt.se
• 070-213 09 20

94. Images
Eye 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