Designing Connected Products: UX for the Consumer Internet of Things

by Claire Rowland, Elizabeth Goodman, Martin Charlier, Ann Light, Alfred Lui

Overview

Networked thermostats, fitness monitors, and door locks show that the Internet of Things can (and will) enable new ways for people to interact with the world around them. But designing connected products for consumers brings new challenges beyond conventional software UI and interaction design.

This book provides experienced UX designers and technologists with a clear and practical roadmap for approaching consumer product strategy and design in this novel market. By drawing on the best of current design practice and academic research, Designing Connected Products delivers sound advice for working with cross-device interactions and the complex ecosystems inherent in IoT technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449372712
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/18/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	726
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Claire is an independent UX design, research and product strategy consultant working on internet of things products and services for mainstream consumers. She has a particular interest in the use of technology in mundane, everyday activities. Previously, she worked on energy management and home automation services as the service design manager for AlertMe.com, a connected home platform provider. Prior to this, she was Head of Research for the London studio of design consultancy Fjord, where she led Fjord's involvement in the Smarcos EU consortium researching the interusability of interconnected embedded devices and services. She has worked in UX design and research for mobile, multiplatform and web services since 1997.

Elizabeth Goodman investigates the possibilities and perils of emerging technologies in her design, research, and writing. Her 2014 PhD from UC Berkeley's School of Information focused on human-computer interaction and design practice for novel technologies, and was supported by National Science Foundation and Intel fellowships. In 2013 she authored the second edition of Observing the User Experience, a widely-used handbook of design research methods. Her work has taken her from exploratory research and design teams at Intel, Yahoo!, and Fuji-Xerox to her current position with 18F, a service and product design group within the US government aimed at making federal agencies more efficient, more transparent, more accessible, and more accountable to the people they serve. Elizabeth speaks widely on the design of mobile and pervasive computing systems at conferences, schools, and businesses. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children. She tweets as @egoodman.

German-born Martin Charlier is an independent design consultant based in London. Martin is a designer with experience across new media art, industrial design, interaction design and design research. His speculative design work has been awarded by the Royal Society of Arts, and he is a fellow of the organization.

He has previously worked at innovation firm frog design, cutting-edge art collective rAndom International and digital service design consultancy Fjord.

While at Fjord he was involved in the EU-funded Smarcos research project investigating design for the Internet of Things. With his broad range of design skills, Martin's focus is on holistic product and service experiences going across the digital and the physical.

Alfred Lui has been a user experience designer for consumer products since 2004. He created user interfaces and digital services for companies around the world, including The BBC, Motorola, PayPal and Jawbone. In London, he was part of a EU-funded research project to investigate best practices in designing networked objects. Soon after he moved to San Francisco in 2011, he founded the San Francisco Internet of Things Meetup to build a local community around the topic. Alfred frequently writes and speaks about user experience design for the Internet of Things.

Table of Contents

; Praise for Designing Connected Products; Foreword; Preface; From “Internet of Things” to “Connected Products”; The Design Challenge; Why Did I Write This Book?; Why Is It About Consumers?; Who Is It For?; About the Authors; How This Book Is Organized; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: What’s Different About User Experience Design for the Internet of Things?; 1.1 How Is UX for IoT Different?; 1.2 A Design Model for IoT; 1.3 Summary; Chapter 2: Things: The Technology of Connected Devices; 2.1 Types of Connected Device; 2.2 Multipurpose Computers; 2.3 Bridging Physical and Digital: Sensors and Actuators; 2.4 The Challenge of Powering Devices; 2.5 Conserving Battery Life; 2.6 Summary; Chapter 3: Networks: The Technology of Connectivity; 3.1 Why is Networking Relevant to IoT UX?; 3.2 Networking Issues That Cause UX Challenges for IoT; 3.3 The Architecture of the Internet of Things; 3.4 Types of Network; 3.5 Network Communication Patterns; 3.6 Internet Service; 3.7 Summary; 3.8 Case Study 1: Proteus Digital Health: The Connected Pill; Chapter 4: Product/Service Definition and Strategy; 4.1 Making Good Products; 4.2 From Innovation to Mass Market; 4.3 Tools Versus Products; 4.4 What Makes a Good Product?; 4.5 Services in IoT; 4.6 Business Models; 4.7 Summary; Chapter 5: Understanding People and Context; 5.1 The Role of Research in Connected Product Design; 5.2 Initial Questions and Concepts; 5.3 Techniques: From Asking to Watching to Making; 5.4 Summary; Chapter 6: Translating Research into Product Definitions; 6.1 Generating the Elevator Pitch; 6.2 Why Does Your Product Matter?; 6.3 What Is Your Product?; 6.4 What Does the Product Do?; 6.5 Recurring Questions for Product Strategy; 6.6 Summary; 6.7 Case Study 2: Little Kelham: Connected Home; Chapter 7: Embedded Device Design; 7.1 An Introduction to Thinking About Physical Objects in IoT; 7.2 Making Stuff: Differences to UX; 7.3 Essentials of the Design Process; 7.4 Three Faces of a Physical Product; 7.5 Summary; Chapter 8: Interface and Interaction Design; 8.1 Types of Interaction; 8.2 IoT-Specific Challenges and Opportunities; 8.3 Universal Design and Accessibility; 8.4 Summary; 8.5 Case Study 3: Ford SYNC 3: Connected Car; Chapter 9: Cross-Device Interactions and Interusability; 9.1 Cross-Platform UX and Usability; 9.2 What Is Interusability?; 9.3 Conceptual Models and Composition; 9.4 Consistency; 9.5 Continuity; 9.6 Summary; Chapter 10: Interoperability; 10.1 The CompuServe of Things; 10.2 What Is Interoperability and Why Is It a Problem?; 10.3 How Can Devices Interoperate?; 10.4 How Can We Improve Interoperability?; 10.5 The UX of Interoperability; 10.6 Summary; 10.7 Case Study 4: LOOP: Connected Pelvic Floor Exerciser; Chapter 11: Responsible IoT Design; 11.1 Security; 11.2 Privacy; 11.3 Social Engineering; 11.4 Environment; 11.5 Summary; Chapter 12: Supporting Key Interactions; 12.1 Setup; 12.2 In-Life Housekeeping; 12.3 Discovery; 12.4 Control Experiences; 12.5 Platforms; 12.6 The Technology of Getting Things Connected; 12.7 Summary; 12.8 Case Study 5: BRCK: Rugged Portable WiFi Hotspot; Chapter 13: Designing with Data; 13.1 Introduction; 13.2 Data in IoT; 13.3 Types of Data-Driven Product; 13.4 What This Means for Design; 13.5 Summary; Chapter 14: Iterative Design: Prototyping and Learning; 14.1 The Necessity of Working Iteratively; 14.2 Using Prototypes to Answer Questions; 14.3 How Do You Decide What to Prototype?; 14.4 Evaluation: Success Demands Failure; 14.5 Summary; Chapter 15: Designing Complex, Interconnected Products and Services; 15.1 It’s Complicated...; 15.2 Scaling the UX; 15.3 Control; 15.4 Approaches to Managing Complexity; 15.5 Summary; Companies, Products, and Links; About the Authors;