UX in IoT Special: What a Great Evening!
UX MK and IoT MK partnered to host a meetup called “UX in IoT Special”, with Dr Chloe Sharp from Snap Out and Leo Poll from Akendi UK speaking.
We had a brilliant turnout and were really supported by everyone who came along. Thank you so much to those that joined us! We’re also thankful to Natwest Accelerator Hub who allowed us to use the space for the evening.
Discussion
The evening sparked some interesting discussions and debates related to UX in IoT, including its challenges and opportunities. We thought we would share some of them with you, in case you weren’t able to attend.
- Language
Where there is cross-departmental working — such as between engineers and UX designers — sometimes the specialist languages from each sides can be inaccessible or confusing, impacting on how they work together. Reflecting on this, we concluded that visual communication can sometimes overcome these barriers.
It can highlight that the two parties are often in fact talking about the same thing, though using different vocbulary.
2. Desirability vs. Feasibility
Where there is ‘desirability’ from users, businesses also have to consider feasibility — what can be realistically delivered to users to solve a problem they may have? In addition, is it viable? Should a business do it, even if they can?
One attendee gave the example of a self-cleaning cat litter tray. Although it would solve a “problem” that does exist, should bright minds be spending their time developing such a product?
3. The importance of including users through the product development process
In the design of IoT products, users had been involved throughout the entirety of the process. This was seen as valuable because the product initially conceptualised was then iterated and developed to become more suitable in reality.
4. What does consistency mean in UX/UI Design?
This was an interesting debate. Some attendees argued that, from a UI perspective, “consistency” between IoT products was necessary. That is to say, that IoT products should have a similar look and feel. However, the differing view was that products should not be too consistently similar in terms of design because their functionality and purpose is so widely different, despite the shared IoT characteristic.
5. Designing for different use cases
For one business, an IoT product was designed with one purpose in mind alongside users. However, in reality, the product had much wider applications than first thought.
This highlights that involving users throughout such processes can also help businesses to identify a range of use cases.
6. Not all aspects of IoT may require good UX
As IoT products are made up of a range of devices and sensors, it was argued that sensors that are setup once and stay in the background, may not require good UX. However, for a positive UX experience, the IoT system should be easy to setup, even if the individual component itself doesn’t need good UX.
7. Henry Ford and A Research Misconception
I have a love/hate view of Henry Ford, mainly because I hear his words so often used to make a point about research asking what people want. He is supposed to have said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Here, he is making the point that research isn’t needed for true innovation and that if he had spoken to people he would have asked them outright what they wanted.
Researchers should never ask people what they want, instead they should observe actual behaviours and conduct interviews/focus groups about how people currently do something, to gain insights into their ‘problem’, which then acts as a springboard for ideation. Discovery is a key part of the design process.
8. Going around the design process
Although this UX Design process looks linear, in reality it isn’t — it looks more like this:
The stages are not a stepped process. Instead one may stay in Discover, then Define, then Discover, then Define again and then Testing and so forth.
At Snap Out, we usually have two to three rounds of Discovery, Define and Design to test with users.
Future Meetup: 27 March 2019
Our next UX MK meetup will be on the 27 March. We’ll be focusing on Design Sprints and Jeremy King from New Socks Media will be speaking.
At future UX MK meetups, we aim to have more stories, case studies, themed events and information about members to help networking.
Sign up now on meetup.com now!
The Snap Out Team 🚀
