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Chapter 1. What's Different
About User Experience Design
for the Internet of Things?
BY CLAIRE ROWLAND
User experience UX design and human–computer interaction HCI emerged in a
world of desktop computers. But our experience of computing has changed
radically in the past 1015 years. Many of our interactions now take place on
mobile phones, tablets, ereaders, and smart TVs. And it’s common to use one
service across multiple devices with different form factors (Figure 11).
Figure 11. BBC iPlayer can be used on connected TVs, smartphones, tablets, PCs,
game consoles, and set-top boxes (image: BBC
We’re still figuring out the best ways to design for new devices and experiences.
Interactions can happen in a wide variety of contexts, especially for mobile
devices. They can happen on a variety of scales, from tiny wrist-tops, to
smartphones, to TV user interfaces (UIs) viewed from 10 feet away. Even
academic researchers in HCI have published relatively few papers on cross-
platform design.
The “Internet of Things” IoT refers to the growing range of everyday objects
acquiring connectivity, sensing abilities, and increased computing power. In
consumer terms, some common categories currently include:
Connected home technology (such as thermostats, lighting, and energy
monitoring)
Wearables (such as activity/fitness trackers and “smart” watches)
Chapter 1. What's Different About User Experience Design for the Internet of Things? 1
, Medical/wellness devices (such as bathroom scales and blood pressure
monitors)
Connected cars (which may provide access to smartphone apps via
dashboard controls, engine diagnostics, and automatic alerting of authorities
in case of a crash)
Urban systems (such as air quality sensors, city rental bikes, and parking
meters/sensors)
Designing for the Internet of Things IoT raises all the challenges of cross-
platform design, and more.
An obvious difference is the much wider variety of device form factors, many
without screens (see Figure 12).
Less obvious differences include the effects of many IoT devices being only
intermittently connected. And even a simple task, like unlocking a door, can
quickly become complex when it forms part of a system spanning many
interconnected devices, services, and users.
IoT is still a technically driven field. At the time of writing, the UX of many IoT
products is some way off the level expected of mature consumer products. For
example, the UK government commissioned a study on the usability of connected
heating systems in late 2013. They found that none of the five major connected
heating devices on the market in the UK offered a good UX.[14]
Figure 12. The Lockitron connected door lock is one of a huge number of
connected devices with no screen (image: Lockitron)
Before we start, we should explain what we mean by “UX” and “user experience
design.” Many people equate the term with “UI” or “user interface design,” but
they are not the same. UX is a holistic term referring to a wide range of design
disciplines involved in creating systems that are useful, usable, and pleasurable to
use. UI design is just one of those. As the UX consultant Elisabeth Hubert explains
it:
The user interface is not the (design) solution, but instead is the medium through
which users interact with the solution.[15]
In A Design Model for IoT, we’ll look in more detail at the facets of design that
comprise UX for an IoT system.)
Chapter 1. What's Different About User Experience Design for the Internet of Things? 2
, In this chapter, we begin by introducing the differentiators that make UX design
for IoT a new and challenging domain.
This chapter introduces:
What’s different about UX for IoT (see How Is UX for IoT Different?)
A design model for IoT (see A Design Model for IoT)
It considers the following issues:
The challenges of distributing functionality across multiple devices
(see Functionality Can Be Distributed Across Multiple Devices with Different
Capabilities)
How the focus of the UX is increasingly in the service (see The Focus of the
User Experience May Be in the Service)
Whether we are ready for the real world to start behaving like the Internet
(see We Don’t Expect Internet-Like Glitches from the Real World)
How the ways devices connect to the network affects the UX (see IoT is
Largely Asynchronous)
How multiple devices create more complexity for the user to understand
(see Code Can Run in Many More Places)
How controlling distributed devices is similar to programming (see Devices are
Distributed in the Real World)
How what seem like simple systems can rapidly become complex
(see Complex Services Can Have Many Users, Multiple UIs, Many Devices,
Many Rules and Applications)
The problems of having many different technical standards (see Many
Differing Technical Standards Make Interoperability Hard)
How data is at the core of many IoT services (see IoT is All About Data)
The layers of UX thinking required to create a successful IoT product: from UI
and interaction design all the way down to the platform (see A Design Model
for IoT)
How Is UX for IoT Different?
Chapter 1. What's Different About User Experience Design for the Internet of Things? 3
, Designing for IoT comes with a bunch of challenges that will be new to designers
accustomed to pure digital services. How tricky these challenges prove will
depend on:
The maturity of the technology you’re working with
The context of use or expectations your users have of the system
The complexity of your service (e.g., how many devices the user has to
interact with)
The following sections summarize the key differences between UX for IoT and UX
for digital services. Some of these are a direct result of the technology of
embedded devices and networking. We’ll explain the technology issues in more
detail in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. But even if you are already familiar with
embedded device and networking technology, you might not have considered the
way it shapes the UX.
FUNCTIONALITY CAN BE DISTRIBUTED ACROSS MULTIPLE DEVICES WITH
DIFFERENT CAPABILITIES
IoT devices come in a wide variety of form factors with varying input and output
capabilities. Some may have screens, such as heating controllers or washing
machines (see Figure 13). Some may have other ways of communicating with us,
such as flashing LEDs or sounds (see Figure 14).
Figure 13. The Honeywell evohome connected radiator valve has a basic LCD
screen (image: Honeywell Environmental Controls)
Some may have no input or output capabilities at all and are unable to tell us
directly what they are doing. Interactions may be handled by web or smartphone
apps. Despite the differences in form factors, users need to feel as if they are
using a coherent service rather than a set of disjointed UIs. It’s important to
consider not just the usability of individual UIs but interusability: distributed user
experience across multiple devices (see Figure 15). This is explained further
in Chapter 9.
Figure 14. The GlowCaps connected pill bottle lid uses light and sound
notifications to remind the user to take medication (image: GlowCaps)
Figure 15. The Nest Learning Thermostat can be controlled by the on-device UI, a
smartphone app, or a web app (image: Nest)
Chapter 1. What's Different About User Experience Design for the Internet of Things? 4
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