Designing for the Internet of Things

For many systems, it makes sense to use a network of devices that are specialized for particular functions. For example, the Liv ...

for early adopters than a product that majority consumers will configure themselves. It’s also more complex for designers to com ...

experience in some contexts of use, such as the forthcoming clip-on fall sensor for the Lively safety watch for older adults. Sp ...

the user is in at home e.g. to turn the lights on and off, a smartphone could be used via Bluetooth LE connections, but will onl ...

system make no sense if connectivity is lost? Is a suitable fallback available? I should not have to worry about being unable to ...

Consistency across multiple devices In the case of cross-platform systems, designers also need to consider consistency across di ...

Users are often intimidated by heating controllers and expect them to be confusing. And they might not have a strong enough ment ...

differences, for example Android users may expect contextual menus on long press, a convention which does not exist on iOS, wher ...

Figure 9. 23 : The Nest thermostat and iOS app (showing Celsius temperatures). Aesthetic styling A consistent visual and aesthet ...

intruding on usage. It adds to the sense that the devices are a family and helps users form a conceptual model of how the system ...

UIs on different devices don’t all have to have the same features, but where they do, the functionality should be consistent. Fo ...

they are interacting with the service through the devices, not with a bunch of separate devices. There are two key components he ...

Figure 9. 27 : Kindle Whispersync UI dialog (Image by Kei Noguchi). You’d expect this from any other connected device too. For e ...

uses a lot of power. Instead, they will connect intermittently, checking in for new data. This can cause delays and result in si ...

Figure 9. 28 : In some situations, devices may temporarily report conflicting information about the state of the system. (Hand/p ...

Figure 9.29: Instagram registers likes or comments in the UI even while the status bar spinner shows the request is technically ...

The temperature is set to 109F. The user turns this up to 129F The system registers that the new temperature should be 129F, and ...

A status message confirms that the target temperature has been changed. The water heater has turned on to heat the water to 129F ...

There are no standards here yet, and no right or wrong answer for every situation. In our first example, the primary use case fo ...

‘how much gas does my oven consume’? As relatively few activities in the home run on gas as compared to electricity, it’s possib ...