The information age took us by storm and the mobile revolution is still in full effect – yet we already stand on the brink of the next paradigm shift: the seamless connection of information and personal devices. Imagine a world where you have the possibility of giving your devices context by simply holding them close to a tiny chip. Things like sharing your WiFi credentials or telling your mobile phone that you are going to bed and it should mute and dim itself and also set the alarm clock to 7am. All with one simple touch — Welcome to the world of Near Field Communication. This talk focuses on the amazing possibilities of NFC in everyday use. A variety of actual and (once) futuristic use cases will illustrate how NFC can enrich our experiences with technology and how this relates to our profession of User Experience Design and our role in shaping the future.

1. Memi Beltrame
The User experience of
Near Field Communication
May 15. 2013
UX Lisbon

2. THe Mobile
revolution
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/612782641/

3. THe Mobile
revolution
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/612782641/
The mobile revolution took us by storm and is still in
full effect. I am going to tell something about the next
chapter of this revolution. It is all about making
everyday interactions easier and more enjoyable.
Before we start I would like to make three observatons
on things that I find make our lives hard in terms of
interactions:

4. Money
Cumbersome
interactions

5. Money
Cumbersome
interactions
Number 1: Our daily lives are filled with complicated
and confusing interactions with all sorts of objects and
appliances like for example ticketting machines...

7. ... or illogical arrays of light light switches.

8. Unneccessary

9. Unneccessary
Number 2: Our Lives are full of tasks we would prefer
not to do and if we have the choice will be more than
happy to skip them.
This for example is one of many versiona of the WiFi
Nightmare. In this case the provider wants to verify my
existence via SMS...

10. The WiFi
Nightmare

11. The WiFi
Nightmare
...which of course does not really work without having a
signal.

12. Context would
be king

13. Context would
be king
Number 3: The things we interact with are isolated
objects that are not aware of who is using them or what
else is around them.
So the main pain points of interactions are bad
interfaces, silly workflows and the lack of context.

14. Rejoice!
http://instagram.com/p/YsyYEZIv4H/

15. Rejoice!
http://instagram.com/p/YsyYEZIv4H/
But don‘t worry: This is about to change. We are about
to enter a new era. A time where objects are
interconnected and where things can have an identity -
making it possible to replace manual tasks by digital
processes.

16. The Web of Things

17. The Web of ThingsThis is the era of the internet of things: Objects that
have sensors and that can communicate via the internet
with other objects. Objects that can be reached by
smartphones and computers of the internet.
Like this plant sensor that tells me if the plant needs
watering through my mobile phone.

18. Near Field Communication

19. Near Field Communication
One important element in all this is a technology called
near field communication or in short NFC.
What you see here are the different logos used in
connection with NFC.

20. Pairing

21. PairingWithout going into technical details, here's how NFC
works:
NFC allows smartphones and similar devices to
communicate with each other just by holding them
close to each other, usually no more than a few
centimeters. This is called Pairing.

22. Tags

23. TagsNFC devices can read and write informations on NFC
chips, called so called "tags".
These tags can hold all sorts of information like links to
websites, contact information or WiFi Credentials.
And that's all the technical info you need to know.

25. Here‘s an example how NFC works:
This is a book that is part of a company library. The tag
on the book contains a link that leads to the library
page of this specific book. By swiping your NFC phoe
over the tag your phones browser opens the books
Library page and the user can borrow the book in a very
simple process.

26. NFC SO FAR

27. NFC SO FAR
So far payment systems are the most talked about
application of NFC.
But:

28. Access & ID

29. Access & ID
We have been using NFC all along with smart ticketing
systems like London's Oyster Card, with Library Cards,
Or whenever you were given a card as your Hotel Room
Key.
So why is this a revolution if we have been using it all
along?

30. Access & ID
With the oyster card and you were given the chip.
If you're using your NFC enabled Phone to interact with
NFC this is completely different Story:
With your phone you are holding the reader. And this
reader has a display to show an interface, and because
it is your personal device it is tied to you.

31. Access & IDSo NFC in the future will be about the seamless
connection of information and personal devices.

32. Usecases

33. Usecases
I believe that the main fields where NFC has a lot of
potential are travel and Tourism, Health care, and Home
automation. Here a few examples.

34. Payment
Payment

35. Payment
PaymentI will not talk about payment methods.
Contactless payments are fantastic but I think NFC has
way more applications that just money exchange.

36. On the move
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsogood/2673797904

37. On the move
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsogood/2673797904
There are a few very interesting scenarios that have to
deal with being on the move.

38. Wifi

39. WifiThe simplest of them is Access to wifi.
Wifi in hotels and restaurants is a nightmare.
NFC makes this simple:
The WiFi Credentials can be written on a tag so users
just have to swipe their phones over it and they're done.
No error prone typing. Fast and easy.

40. Tokio
http://www.flickr.com/photos/derguy/8042802029

41. Tokio
http://www.flickr.com/photos/derguy/8042802029
Next: Just imagine you are in a hotel room in Tokio, it is
Summer. It's hot and humid.
Luckily your room has air conditioning!

43. Unfortunately it comes with a remote control that looks
like this.

45. Just imagine you could hold your phone against an NFC
chip and it would display the interface of the air
conditioning in your language. This is possible. The air
conditioning could have a small webserver running and
the tag would just launch your browser linking to the
server of the air conditioning.

46. http://maxgif.com/341
Car Sharing

47. http://maxgif.com/341
Car SharingNext scenario: Imagine you share a car with your
spouse. Now whenever you use the car after your
spouse, you have to adjust the seat, the mirrors, the
speakers, the radio station.
If you have an NFC enabled car, all you need is to open
your car with your phone and the adjustments are made
automatically, because the car knows your phone.

48. ★ CID Customer Identification Device (Lancia)
★ Emotion Control Unit ECU (Aston Martin),
★ Komfortschlüssel (Audi),
★ Keyless Access oder KESSY (Volkswagen, Skoda, Subaru, Hella)
★ Keycard Handsfree Entry and Drive/ SES Smart Entry System (Renault)
★ KeyFree Power (Ford)
★ Keyless Drive / Keyless Vehicle (Volvo)
★ Keyless Start (Suzuki)
★ Komfortzugang bzw. Comfort Access (BMW)
★ LogIn (Mazda)
★ PASE Passive Start Entry System (Siemens VDO)
★ PEPS Passive Entry Passive Start / Open & Start (Opel, ContiTemic & Hella)
★ PEG Passive Entry Go (DaimlerChrysler, Hella)
★ PE/PG Passive Entry Passive Go und CE/CG Comfort Entry Comfort Go (Bosch)
★ Smart Entry & Start (Toyota)
★ Smart Key (KIA)
★ Intelligent Key (Nissan)
List of Keyless Go Projects

49. ★ CID Customer Identification Device (Lancia)
★ Emotion Control Unit ECU (Aston Martin),
★ Komfortschlüssel (Audi),
★ Keyless Access oder KESSY (Volkswagen, Skoda, Subaru, Hella)
★ Keycard Handsfree Entry and Drive/ SES Smart Entry System (Renault)
★ KeyFree Power (Ford)
★ Keyless Drive / Keyless Vehicle (Volvo)
★ Keyless Start (Suzuki)
★ Komfortzugang bzw. Comfort Access (BMW)
★ LogIn (Mazda)
★ PASE Passive Start Entry System (Siemens VDO)
★ PEPS Passive Entry Passive Start / Open & Start (Opel, ContiTemic & Hella)
★ PEG Passive Entry Go (DaimlerChrysler, Hella)
★ PE/PG Passive Entry Passive Go und CE/CG Comfort Entry Comfort Go (Bosch)
★ Smart Entry & Start (Toyota)
★ Smart Key (KIA)
★ Intelligent Key (Nissan)
List of Keyless Go Projects
This is an impressive list of projects by car
manufacturers that are dealing with Keyless Key
Systems.
Looks like this is something that will hit the market very
soon!

50. REntals

51. REntals
A similar use case is rentals: this is a project from
Barcelona called Eco-oltra and it is a system that let's
the users rent a electric scooters using their mobile
phones and then, using NFC they can also use the
mobile phone to start the scooter because it detects
that this mobile has been used to make the reservation.

52. REntalsThis has the very great advantage that if your motorbike
does not work you can very easily request the key for
another bike without have to go anywhere.

53. Healthcare
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveynin/7417095278

54. Healthcare
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveynin/7417095278
Change of Scene: Let's have a look at healthcare:
Whenever I am in a Hospital I am always surprised that
there are almost no digital processes. A lot is done by
handwriting on paper. Very error prone and it does not
scale. All this Equipment that you see generates an
immense amount of data, related to one patient. Data
that is not tied to the person digitally.

56. This is a Thermometer. Imagine that every Patient would
have a NFC Tag attached to the bed. This Tag would just
hold the ID of the patient. This ID would correspond to
a profile of the patient in the cloud. The thermometer
would be able to read the tag and transmit the
measured temperature to the patient profile.

58. This can be extended to all sorts of measurements like
blood pressure, weight or also medication like infusions
and syringes.

59. http://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/6869336880

60. http://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/6869336880
When the doctor comes to visit you all she needs is a
device that can read the chip and gets all the data from
the profile that she needs to assess your case.

61. Precautions

62. Precautions
This is all very exiting, but there are a few things to
consider:

64. Not all smartphones have NFC. iPhones don‘t have it
and by far not all Androids support it.
Another big issue is Battery life, also a huge problem.
These two issues point to the rule that users should not
have to rely solely on having a smartphone to use a
service.

65. Enhancing

66. Enhancing
Using your mobile can also just be the enhancement of
the NFC tag you‘re given so that the basic experience
works without you having to rely on your mobile
A nice illustration of this is the ordering process of the
italian restaurant Vapiano in Zurich . You get an NFC
card on which every order is recorded.

68. Whenever you order a pizza you also get a buzzer that
is paired with your card and when the pizza is ready the
buzzer goes off. This buzzer could be replaced with
your phone and because unlike this buzzer your phone
has a display it allows even more functionality like for
instance ordering more drinks

69. Design in Flux

70. Design in Flux
How will this affect us designers? Designing for NFC and
the internet of things is becoming an interdisciplinary
field consisting of service design, interaction design and
industrial design.

71. Design in Flux
We will design a holistic experience that goes beyond
the screen, we will have to take into account where the
system will be used, where the tags will be placed and
how are users going to interact with them.

72. devices

73. devicesWe will have to know a lot more about the context of
users in the wider sense. If we want to design a holistic
experience for a hospital we will have to think about a
lot more that just how user needs are translated to the
screens. We will have to observe a lot to see the
potential for improvements.

74. Controls

75. Controls
We will have to a lot to do with translating hardware
controls into easy to use interfaces.

76. Workflows

77. Workflows
We will have to think very hard about workflows and
about the connections between the digital and physical
world to make sure that the experience is really
seamless.

78. R/Evolution !

79. R/Evolution !A lot of this is happening right now. There are millions
of NFC Capable devices - they‘re just not being used.
The future of NFC is now - it just needs a broader, NFC
conscious audience.

80. Thank You!
I‘m Memi Beltrame
@bratwurstkomet