Why mobile product design is crucial in the era of the internet of things.
Lorenz Vierecke, Director of User Experience Design at the SinnerSchrader Swipe studio in Berlin, shares his thoughts about designing services for the Internet of Things.
”The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical devices,(…) embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure.” (Wikipedia)
That is how Wikipedia defines the term Internet of Things. What Wikipedia does not tell you is, what it exactly means to design products for the so-called Internet of Things. Swipe is a mobile studio, with a strong heritage in native app development. We see the Internet of Things as one of the most important progressions to happen to our industry. While the world has been discussing the end of apps as we know them for quite some time, we see a new realm of native apps — as we understand them as ‘door opening’ interfaces for connected services of the Internet of Things. IoT promises that everything that can connect to the internet will be connected.The smartphone was the first “thing on the internet” after the desktop computer and is now the integral part of the experience layer above new connected devices and services. The iPhone was the first truly personal computer, not the clunky grey monster by IBM, as it started to accompany us in every moment of our lifes and set up completely new communication routines. By machines getting connected by new sensors and APIs, we will see how machines starting to communicate as well and by that laying the foundation for new use cases and services. According to Gartner IT -0.59%, there will be 25 billion connected devices by 2020.
What became pretty clear to us recently, is that the primary challenge of designing for the Internet of Things is to consciously create an ecosystem of meshed touchpoints which are meaningfully linked with one another. For us, the mobile touchpoint works as entry into those ecosystems and becomes the heart of user-centric product design. But as the goal becomes building ecosystems as value webs, you cannot design and develop one product in an isolated fashion anymore. That is why we are convinced that, if you design services in the context of the Internet of Things you need to answer first, how you can initiate a mobile product within an overarching service experience layer.
1. Set up — Service Design
First of all the Internet of Things is a term which implies the possibility to transform a product-centric business into a data-driven, user-centric business model. As said, every “thing of the internet” needs to be embedded into a service ecosystem, build by different interconnected touchpoints and products, to provide a seamless service experience. That is also why product design, which respects a connected product landscape, needs to be put into action by a profound service design which radically puts the user first. So before spending resources on building actual software for a specific touchpoint you need to evaluate a core value proposition in various sprints to understand its applications as well as their necessary interconnection to different products. You can not focus on the experience design of one single touchpoint if you have not understood the role of the touchpoint within the overarching service ecosystem. Companies need to understand usage as a sequence of multichannel actions first, to be able to think of their product as an interlinking web of multiple use cases and scenarios. The first questions that you need to answer are: Who are our users? What are their personas, drivers and motivations? What do those users require in which situations or use cases and how can you deliver a tailor-made solution for that specific context? Consequently, every user story which later on formulates the requirements for the production needs to take the interplay between the earlier defined touchpoints into account.
So we see following core challenges designing products in the context of IoT:
- Evaluation of the user
- Discovery of core use cases
- Definition of a value proposition for the whole service
- Definition of touchpoints and touchpoint strategy. Which touchpoint can serve which user need?
- Determination of features and their priority regarding the value proposition of each touchpoint
- Set up of a highly functional team and a cross-touchpoint working process
- Execution of different products at the same time in different production teams without any inconsistencies and a synchronised roadmap
2. Execution through connected product management
If a corporation identified the potential of a connected business model in its organisation, it needs to make sure that there is product management in place which is capable of keeping the high-level overview and realising very detailed channel specific requirements at the same time: connected product management. That is why product management of the different service touchpoints needs to be in total sync the whole time and make the right framing of communication of the core skills to realise a holistic service experience. The product owner of an app, for example, needs to connect her vertical execution team of the product horizontally with other products and other product streams when it is required. Also, the PO is the one individual in charge of keeping the primary purpose of one touchpoint within the service. At the core of every service, we see the necessity of a service owner, who defines the overall vision of the service and curates a global backlog of high level described functionalities. This service owner is the keeper of the service vision, which determines the interplay between touchpoints regarding different features. Furthermore, he sets the KPIs and business goals of the whole service and its products. Without a clear mission, there is no basis for the decision, in an environment where you are forced to make choices all the time. Together with the product owners, the service owner is defining the role of each touchpoint within the service ecosystem and by that, developing the whole service further. The main goal of the connected product management is to deliver in a synchronised fashion. The alignment of requirements and execution roadmaps is crucial for determined service development.
As digital projects and requirements are getting bigger, and digital products are often linked to organisational change, the whole execution is becoming far more complicated. We often see, for example, two product owners per touchpoint on the client side of an app, while we know many function owners, who are mostly engineers, briefing the technical preconditions of the particular hardware. That is also why communication becomes a colossal effort which needs to get tackled efficiently by a connected product and client management.
To ensure a holistic service development, it is mandatory to consciously install a team structure which can distribute responsibility without creating any gaps. Therefore at Swipe, we see that product teams need to work as T-shaped entities: The mobile product teams need to be compatible horizontally to other product teams via a holistic service design layer and be able to execute and deliver vertically by creating touchpoint specific concepts, design and code. As mobile blends more and more into a complex ecosystem of interconnected digital products our product teams need to be experts in executing products for the mobile use case but also be capable of thinking strategically about embedding the mobile touchpoint into an overarching service strategy.
3. The native mobile touchpoint
As Swipe is involved in many projects as a mobile focussed product studio, we also want to emphasise the role of mobile products within connected service ecosystems. In general, we see four critical functionalities for the mobile touchpoint within a connected service.
3.1 Onboarding of the user
The mobile touchpoint is often the first touchpoint of a service. That is why it needs to be taken into account along the whole customer journey. The set up of the hardware and the onboarding of the user merges into the first connection between mobile device and hardware. The setup needs to work as seamlessly as possible. What is very important to consider at this point, is that the user is guided all along the process by clear advise, language and natural feedbacks (e.g. success and error handling).
3.2 Remote control of the service
The primary use case of a native app consists in the remote control of hardware functionalities, which also guarantees permanent retention. That is also why the user interface needs to be recognisable to the surface of the actual hardware especially if it contains a screen interface.
3.3 Service and support
As the connector to the physical world and the most personal touchpoint, the app of the particular service is expected to provide immediate assistance if the user needs it. With new technological options like bots or half automated communication, we can smartly distribute service requests in favour to minimise the need for call centre and even lead the user to the service entity, which already knows what problem they need to solve. In general, we see atomization of apps regarding a contextual integration. That means that we need to always have in mind how we can build extensions of an app by horizontally integrating parts of the product in pre-existing services (e.g. you can book an Uber via Google Maps). Furthermore, we need to figure out how we can enable the user to access functionalities about contextual shortcuts (e.g. enriched notifications).
3.4 Service evolution — Products as Data Hubs
What we experience many times is that big corporations are acting product-centric and are struggling to shift the focus to a data-driven and user-centric business model. The real potential of connected services and products exists in the constant information flow that corporations can gain about their clients through the use of IoT services. Gone are the days where a company loses sight of its customers the day the product is sold. Here is a massive chance for constant iteration and optimisation of the whole service experience and even the business model. What it also means is that there is an entirely new terrain evolving for marketing and branded communication: “Because sensors and software enable data transmission between consumer and service provider, connected products themselves become extensions of the brand message.” Out of those integrated contexts, new opportunities for contextual and iterative branding are arising. That is also why new disciplines like UX writing are emerging and playing a larger role within the design process. The service tone of voice becomes a crucial differentiation regarding service experience and needs to be taken into account.
If we look into the future of IoT and the rise of smart machines, we also expect to see new ways of automated commerce. New technologies which anticipate the widely automated economy of the Industry 4.0, are already emerging. One of the most impactful concepts is distributed ledger technologies. We will talk about that in one of our next blog posts.
