Compatibility of Internet of Things (IoT) and User Experience (UX)

Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the fastest-growing fields which is driving new ways for interacting with appliances, tools, and devices in entirely new and unexpected ways. IoT is becoming a bigger part of our everyday lives — from our gym and walks to travel planning, home security, and countless other uses. As IoT devices become more common the user experience of using such devices becomes increasingly important. Being a new technology and on the other hand addressing the fact that users have a very low tolerance for the inconvenience of learning something new or doing something differently. That’s why user experience is very vital for IoT products.

Initially, IoT solutions focused primarily on technical capabilities. But with more than one-third of these new objects and services are abandoned by their users after only 6 months of use, it became a primary result of the fact that IoT significantly depends on the UX design for the connected objects. The UX community being new to IoT projects, there is still a lot to be done to develop new best practices specifically for IoT projects.

UX for IoT is different and complex because there are two sequences of interaction ie from user to the virtual system and from the virtual system to the physical system. Also, each physical system has its own set of interactions and moreover there are different users to use the application. Hence the designers have to face new challenges while working on IoT projects.

Therefore, as UX experts we need to know some of the challenges of IoT and find out if we can address them to provide good user experience for our users.

1. Connectivity issues

Internet of Things as its name suggests is primarily based on network connection as the internet is needed to transfer data between the app and physical devices. Most of the IoT devices require a good WiFi network.

We are used to occasional connectivity problems on our smartphones and computers like poor connection during a video call, slow websites, etc. Whereas we don't expect such problems with our physical devices like toasters, room lighting, and opening or closing doors. The user experience expectation of everyday physical things is different from that of the web. When we turn on room light, we expect an immediate response or else we assume that there is some defect with light. But when the internet connection is poor it may take a couple of minutes for the lights to turn on. The users might not be ready for such delays in response from physical products and might lead to frustration, worry or abandoning of IoT system. The first generation users certainly have to go through such problems.

Connectivity issues are going to have a significant impact on the IoT experience and there is little we can do about it since it is a technical problem.

2. Multiple apps for different devices

One of the main problems with IoT devices functioning is that there are plenty of connected devices. Individually these devices might be smart and useful, but as a team, they might not work in sync. Users need different apps for different devices and this becomes overwhelming and a plenty of mental overloads. In the current scenario, users cannot control the whole collection of IoT devices from a single app and make them sync the data. So for instance, if you have a smart car, a smart gym, and a smart toaster, and you have different apps to control them. You won’t be able to apply the rule to adjust the temperature in the room according to your workout data and start your toaster after 30 mins of workout and start your smart car as soon as you lock the door from outside. This does not give a unanimous user experience of all IoT products. This kind of broken UX can make the tasks more complicated whereas the purpose of smart devices is to make the user’s life easier. Another example can be lots of smart home apps don’t work together for example, a user might control the sound system with one app and lights with another. Even in some cases, lighting from different manufacturers may require different apps to control, which leads to bad user experience.

3. Synchronising Data

Another IoT design challenge is to separate the useful and irrelevant data while a lot of data is flowing from various sources and devices. Synchronising data flow between different smart devices is the key to UX design in the IoT platform and is also a difficult task.

4. Third-party integrations

UX designers rely on the supplies from many third-party vendors to develop an IoT device. Different components (sensors, processors, controllers) from different vendors can be difficult to integrate and lead to disoriented user experience. Supplies such as application processors, sensors, controllers, and platforms may not all come from one supplier. Expecting different pieces to work together to produce a seamless UX might be impossible. IoT devices require repairs and updates after a certain interval. Third-party integrations are not always seamless.

5. Impact of hardware

Hardware is a big part of the solution in IoT products and, depending on its type and quality it has a large effect on the user experience. Hardware selection is generally based on the technical specifications, compatibility of running software and cost to the user. The combination of hardware impacts user experience to a large extent. In case the user chooses a lower-cost system, some functionality might not be applicable which compromises the user’s experience. Therefore it is important to select appropriate hardware components.

Conclusion

The key to creating great IoT user experiences lies in understanding the fluid nature of IoT and designing interaction for it. A good user-research is a must to understand the user’s expectations from IoT devices. The fundamentals always remain the same, just that the designer needs to spend more time understanding how IoT works.
In the IoT domain, a user task flow may span different devices, different interaction paradigms, and different contexts of use. This increases complexity by orders of magnitude for the designer. Conversely, user expectations are also increased because users expect the experience of using these disparate connected devices in concert to be more than the sum of their individual experiences.

About Author

Neha Srivastava

Manager | User Experience | HCL Technologies, Noida 

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The business value of UX design

What do your friend's startup, your small local business and a large company such as Google have in common? No, this isn't a trick question.

The answer is actually fairly simple and intuitive. All of the aforementioned businesses depend on users enjoying their products and services in order to continue doing business successfully.
In the recent years many have noticed the importance of UX design and are investing more and more into its research and development.

Be it physical or digital, a product is bound to rouse both an emotional and intellectual response in its consumer based not only on the way it works but also how it looks and feels. Whether that experience is going to be a good one or a bad one is going to make an effect on your sales, and this is exactly where a good UX design team proves itself to be absolutely crucial. 

Why “X” marks the spot

UX design is about two things only – the User and the Experience. Give your users a positive experience and they will reward you with their trust and their business. Companies with highly effective UX have increased their revenue  by 37%, and top 10 UX leaders in America outperform the S&P with close to triple  the returns - a significant lead.

When experiencing your product leaves the user with a foul taste in their mouth, they will quickly take their business elsewhere. 90% of users reported they stopped using an app due to poor performance, and 86% deleted or uninstalled an app as a result of encountering problems with it's functionality or design. Studies show that 86% of users think that an exceptional customer experience is worth paying extra. With these figures in mind, it is not difficult to understand why user experience focused companies like Apple, Google, Adobe, Dropbox and Amazon are year after year leaders of their respectable fields.

While having a great product is paramount, in today's market it often is not enough to keep you ahead of the curve.

This is why investing into UX design has proved to be a game-changing strategy.  A pleasing UX has been proven to earn the users' interest, business, and most of all – their loyalty. 48% of users say that arriving on a business site that isn't working well on mobile will be seen as an indication of the business simply not caring, and 52% said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company in the future.

The principle extends beyond just mobile devices; 40% of users will abandon a web page if it takes more than three seconds to load, while 79% will search for another site to complete their task.

Designing experiences

But what about design? How important is actual aesthetic property of your website (or a product) when it comes to user experience?

An experiment conducted by M. Tractinsky tested relationships between users' perceptions of a computerized system's beauty and its usability.
Its outcome showed that, undeniably, the role the aesthetics plays in HCI design is a major one, and should be kept in mind at all times when catering to the users' needs.



It seems safe to conclude that the business value of UX design is so colossal, one can simply not afford to ignore the importance of a highly skilled team of UX designers putting their expertise into crafting the experience your users are going to undergo and enjoy while engaged with your service or product.

Engaging and connecting with the users is what every company should strive toward, and what good UX design helps you achieve. With design focused on UX, a company is forced to create for their customer. A relationship is formed and it grows, bonding the customer with the product.

References: View original link to article

About Author:

Ines Anić (@i_anic) is a Content and Administrative Associate at UX Passion, where she writes about UX, UI, design and social media management. She is passionate about UX, Usability, web design and video games; and curious about technology, gadgets, IT and the world of startups. Ines is looking forward to connecting with you on LinkedIn and Twitter!