IoT needs more than just great tech

I’m a PhD Student at the University of Queensland. I like to think of myself as a designer, more specifically an interaction designer. But I’m still learning.

My PhD is exploring the relationship between people and the IoT. More specifically, how can we design the IoT so that it ‘fits’ into people’s lives.

The Promise of the IoT

The IoT has come with some pretty massive promises and some interesting predictions. Gartner are predicting that by the end of this year there will be 6.39 billion IoT devices in place.

Last year, they predicted that by 2020 this would increase to 25 billion but this year they revised this figure down to 20.79 billion. Either way, that’s a significant increase in these devices. The prediction of the IoT becoming ‘ubiquitous’ seems to be coming true.

In terms of commercial revenue, Machina Research has predicted that the total potential revenue (which includes both the sale of the devices themselves as well as the revenue from the services associated with those devices) could reach US$4 trillion by 2025.

From a different perspective, Cisco have estimated that between 2013 and 2022 there is US$14.4 trillion ‘at stake’ in terms of potential increased net profit to businesses.

McKinsey have looked at this in terms of value potential which incorporates efficiencies and consumer surplus (how much we are willing to pay compared to how much we actually pay). They have estimated that the value potential of the IoT will range between US$3.9 trillion to US$11.1 trillion per year by the year 2025.

At a more personal level, there has been talk about the IoT making our lives better by delivering improved quality of life both at individual and societal levels — simplifying our lives, helping us build and maintain social relationships, and addressing issues such as social isolation.

People and the IoT

McKinsey examined the different contexts where the IoT had the potential to deliver value. Their research indicated that more than two-thirds of this value potential will arise in business-to-business contexts such as mining and oil, construction and manufacturing. In those contexts, there may be no direct impact on people at all as people are not really in those contexts.

Their research also indicated that one-third of the value potential did arise in contexts that involved people directly. Cisco predicted that 55% of the potential increase to business’ net profit would arise in contexts where people were involved (person-to-machine, machine-to-person and person-to-person).

But there is a problem: people are hesitating when it comes to engaging with the IoT. If we are to realise the value potential of the IoT then we need people to engage with it and bring it into their domestic and personal lives. They need to be prepared for it to collect lots of data about them and to them allow this data to be shared, combined and turned into knowledge that can be effectively used to deliver efficiencies and to make life better.

So what’s the problem?

So far, much of the research and development effort in the IoT has been directed at solving technical issues — maintaining data security, creating small low power connected devices, and resolving issues of interoperability. But we haven’t spent a lot of time exploring how people feel about living in a world full of connected things. We have some information that people are concerned about issues such as privacy, surveillance, accuracy and management of data, ownership of information and consent. But we haven’t really explored the specific meaning of these concerns.

Technology is transforming. We have moved away from the desktop computer being our prime interaction paradigm to mobile devices. The IoT moves us further away from the more ‘traditional’ interaction paradigms into the era of “calm technology”, a world where technology is embedded into our environment, interfaces are not obvious, and our mode of interaction may simply be completing everyday activities.

But as technology changes so does our relationship with it. And, given the nature of the changes we see with the IoT, there are now a more issues that we need to take account of when we design this technology. Most importantly are human values — the things that we consider to be important. These values go beyond considerations of economic worth, but reach into the characteristics that make us human. They are values such as privacy and security, but they also extend to values such as social connection and fun.

Looking at current media it seems that we already know that issues such as privacy and security are important. And a considerable amount of effort is already focused on ways to make sure that data collected by IoT devices is secured and that our privacy is maintained. Whilst we can categorise values into broad domains such as ‘privacy’ these values are subjective. They’re part of the characteristics that make us human: they have different meanings for different people and are subject to social and cultural influences. Importantly, they are also highly influenced by the technology itself (design decisions are often based in human values, commonly those of the designer or the other people involved in the design and development process) and the context in which that technology is used.

Creating broad categories misses the nuances of these values as they are manifested in the everyday world. It doesn’t take account of how these values are played out as we interact with that technology: how people enact those values through their use, abuse or non-use of that technology.

An avenue to explore

What we want from technology is for it to simplify our lives and to support the everyday things that are important to us — after all, the IoT has come with a promise that it will make our lives better. Focusing on the technological aspects of the design of that technology is not enough to ensure that people will engage with that technology.

For us to engage with the IoT, we need to see the value in it — more than just the “hip-pocket” value. We are more likely to perceive this value if the nature of the technology aligns with our own personal or human values and our own meaning of those values. This might be the fact that I want to maintain privacy by not sharing my daily life with my family (after all, that’s why I moved out from home). Or, that I’m happy to share my stories about items of clothing I’ve donated because it helps me let go of my sentimentality.

Identifying concerns such as ‘privacy’ and ‘security’ does not provide us with enough information. We need to understand that these concerns are based in human values. And because they are part of the characteristics that make us human, they are subjective in terms of meaning and are subject to many influences. If we want people to engage with IoT technology, then we need to really explore the specific meaning of these values as they are influenced by contextual, social and cultural factors. And we need to understand how those values are manifested and enacted by people.

Then, we need to determine if we can, from the point of creation, design technology to support or augment those values.