A place we call -smart- home
At Designit we’re exploring what we call Trusting Invisibility.
Building transparency and accountability into things that surround us — but that we don’t see — is extremely relevant when we look at the future of smart living. This is a topic that matters to most of us who are privileged to have a place we call home.
Traditionally, our households are our most sacred spaces: safe grounds and comfortable nests, thanks to their intimate and private natures. Since humankind shifted from foraging nomads to sedentary settlers (10,000 years ago) we increasingly started spending incredible amounts of time and resources in our homes.
Below are some reflections about how our homes are changing; how past predictions have proven to be pretty accurate; and how tech-makers and designers could influence this evolution more responsibly.
Home, (sweet) smart home 🏡
In the last decades, the much-hyped vision of the home of tomorrow has been concretely directed from sole automation towards augmentation, connected domotics, and smart products and services. The core objective of their providers has been to enrich and simplify our lives, providing tailored experiences in order to meet most of consumers’ different needs, life-stage requirements, and personal wishes.
Today (2019), as the Internet of Things continues to develop, our “smart” homes are already able to perform a multitude of impressive tasks for us. When we’re out, our homes can independently unlock the front door in order to let the authenticated delivery guy inside (Nest X Yale Lock + Nest Hello Doorbell). They can automatically adjust the climate throughout the rooms, taking into account various subjective and objective factors (Tado thermostats). They can let the authorities remotely access our indoor camera security system once the theft alarm has been triggered in order to verify the cause and organize prompt support (Verisure security solutions, part of Securitas AB). The list of possible capabilities continues to strengthen on a daily basis, and is generally aimed at increasing energy efficiency, convenience, life style, entertainment, security, and health.
It’s alive! And at what cost… 😲
Our homes are already transforming from static inanimate shelters into connected intelligent spaces, infused with life by technology. Thanks to very complex background infrastructures and perennial and seamless connectivity (powered by the incumbent 5G network), they can accurately observe, detect, smell, hear, and communicate. Empathetic AI isn’t far off, either; soon, our homes may be able to think, learn, make independent decisions, understand human feelings, and even experience emotions!
Along with this growing technological potential, there are several challenges and responsibilities that smart-living providers are dealing with. Like Uncle Ben (Spiderman’s uncle) said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
The smart home solutions of today are expensive investments, often incompatible among each other (without even considering the installation barriers).
They’re generally over-complicated, and require a lot of effort to be configured. Furthermore, their core driver seems to be strongly focused on full-automation (taking over most of our chores and decisions), with the risk of making us lazier, dependent, alienated, and no longer in control of our own intimate surroundings. “Run your home without lifting a finger,” says Google.
What we’re losing 🤔
What about the potential loss of all those intrinsic pleasures and positive emotions triggered by our homely everyday tasks (i.e. the handcraft of cooking a lovely meal for the family; the sense of achievement of manually brewing your morning coffee; the gratification felt by actively taking good care of your plants; etc.)?
What happens if the value generated by these solutions continues to increase with time, and finally meets our comprehensive expectations? Will we then be more inclined to buy into this smartness? .. Probably, still not.
We don’t buy what we can’t trust! (not yet) 😒
We live in the Age of Data and smart, connected products. Whether we like it or not, every interaction we have leaves a trail of information behind that shapes both our digital identities and how our surroundings interact with us. All of those friendly voice assistants that have begun to settle in our living rooms (Alexa, Siri, Watson, etc.) listen to what we say, constantly capturing sensitive data to better interpret and process our orders. It is publicly acknowledged that Amazon employees actively listen to Alexa recordings in order to improve service offerings.
“Home Alone (1990)”: is this even possible anymore?
We’re a lot more educated and aware than we used to be of our digital footprints, rights, online reputations, and the value that data already has. On the other hand, scandals have brought the wide-reaching effects of data misuse to mainstream attention, and as a consequence we face growing concerns around data ownership, cybersecurity, privacy, and product and service reliability. Scarily enough, the use of our extremely sensitive data is an integral component of most smart home solutions, both present and future.
Designing Trust 🤝
The dystopian future described by George Orwell’s Big Brother (1984) was never before as close to being a reality as it is now. The idea of becoming out-of-control ‘prisoners’ in our own homes is a very unsettling thought. (Consider that they’re already smarter than what we believe them to be, and are packed with hackable espionage-like sensors that could pose threats if poorly managed.)
Smart homes seem to be stuck in a ‘work in progress mode.’ They’re suspended in the early-adopters limbo, and are far from mass-market adoption. This general skepticism and lack of trust resides in both the providers, and the intrusive systems acting in the background. The bottom line here is that we don’t buy what we don’t trust, and we don’t trust what we don’t understand! It’s clear that organizations must focus on reducing complexity and increasing transparency whilst promoting trust and stability in order to thrive. There is clearly huge potential in creative exploration and positive innovation for all involved stakeholders.
Finally, consumers are willing to share data so long as they trust that it will be used in a way that’s safe and beneficial for them. Building trust can be the key to success which will enable a meaningful connection between smart homes, their providers, and their users.
Balanced Automation: An ideal future scenario 😍
Just as the multitude of nerves in our bodies carry impulses from an external stimulus to our brain, the sensors in and around our households transmit data inputs to a defined set of rules. This then triggers specific reactions based on collected data (i.e. if the temperature sensor detects entries below a threshold / then preset rules react by switching on the thermostat to warm up the room).
The overall sophistication and intelligence of this system lies predominantly in these “if/then” rules. After all, the brain is the place where decisions are made. Keeping these rules transparent and accessible to the user means ensuring the principles of balanced automation.
How could this work then?
Firstly, the smart system is installed in a household. After an initial period of data collection and quiet learning about the dwellers’ habits, routines and preferences, the home system will be able to accurately detect and automatically interpret data patterns. Once these meaningful patterns are identified, the home system can easily correlate triggers to reactions, pushing them as recommendations with an added layer of intelligence. The calculated suggestions will then be presented to the user in a digestible and transparent manner, through interactive touchpoints (digital, physical, or both) for evaluation and potential ad-hoc customization. This system is certain to work in close symbiosis with other running services and platforms (i.e. personal calendars, weather forecasts, mobile health apps, etc.) in order to cross link and correlate information, in a cycle that continues to provide even more accurate and relevant results.
In this scenario, we as users have an active role in the equation, whilst being still in control, empowered by technology and design. These discreet and trustworthy systems are designed not only to make our lives easier, but to support our daily rituals and provide positive experiences to us, our families, and our guests.
What could this well-balanced model look like? Both home and its inhabitants could care and act in each other’s interests, without overpowering or imposing. Both are in control, and both are actively involved in deciding what is best — together.
The foundations of this point of view were defined from a passionate team of creatives at the E.ON Future Home Hackathon 2019 in Munich, DE.
All the visuals and illustration are jointly created by Andrea Ceccaroni (Designit MUC) and William Conklin (Designit NYC): a great example of global remote co-creation.
