Fragmented Home
Why it’s important to build products that work well together
The world of connected devices is still very much in its infancy, with the home being the obvious epicenter. The marketplace is going to be littered with thousands of connected devices soon. But it’s leaving consumers a bit confused. Are the different products they bought going to work well together? What brand should they trust?
And while brands are battling for the consumer’s hearts, there is another battle brewing for the minds of developers. What platform should they develop on? What wireless technologies should they align with?
As fellow developers and designers, we have learned a lot in our journey and wanted to share a few things that we think are important to consider as you think about your product development. And more importantly, how to ensure that products work well with other products that are already in homes.
1. Meaningful Technology
Make sure you are solving a real problem.
If the need to solve a problem isn’t there, don’t assume that new technology will create the need. Just because a product can be embedded with sensors and connected to the internet doesn’t mean that it actually serves a purpose. Focus on technology not for technology’s sake, but products and services that actually make an impact — products that improve our energy efficiency, change our habits to make us healthier, improve our livelihoods, and make us safer and more comfortable in our homes.
These products should never interfere with our habits, or make simple tasks more complicated. They should adapt around us and our preferences.
2. Design
Design is how it works.
Place your focus on usability.
Who would be using this product? How would the product benefit them? What do people like and dislike about their current solutions?
The answers to these questions ultimately start to define the function and purpose of your product. If the expectations of the consumer align perfectly with the experience of your product — you have succeeded at design. Form follows function.
While usability is the top priority, it’s also important to focus on the whole experience. For objects that are designed for the home, the physical design language should be well thought out. As product designers, it is important to think about the materials, the emotional experience, and overall aesthetics — specifically as it relates to the home.
As an example, if you’re designing a product that is meant to be in the main living space, maybe the industrial design stands out a bit more — an object of desire that the consumer is proud to display in their homes. Or, if it’s a sleep tracker meant for a more focused space like a bedroom — maybe the technology should blend in and disappear.
3. Service-based Business Model
To create a sustainable business, hardware should only be an enabler.
After the initial purchase, what is the lifetime-value of your customer without having to sell them another SKU? It’s becoming increasingly hard to survive as a traditional hardware-only business. Margins are usually in the 20%–30% range and every hardware product eventually becomes commoditized.
The more successful hardware companies have figured out a service based model — Dropcam being the obvious example. Software services can be the key differentiator, preventing competitors from entering your space.
Focus on building a business model that revolves around recurring revenue. The service fee should never be mandatory as it creates a huge barrier in the purchasing decision. Companies should still focus on providing meaningful value to the consumer out of the box. But for an optional service fee, enable the consumer to unlock the true power of the product. The service fee could either enable premium features, give consumers historical access to their data, or be consumption based.
4. Interoperability
It seems like nobody can agree on how connected devices should talk to each other. Everyone has been quick to start to define standards, and in the process, lost sight of the end user experience.
While the landscape slowly takes shape, we think it’s important to integrate with products and services that are best in class, focus on the user experience, have extensive developer support, and take privacy and security seriously. Ultimately you would want your product to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their mobile platform, or other connected devices that they may have in their homes. So how do you pick what devices to integrate with first?
For Zuli, being a small startup, we had to start small and only pick a handful of devices that we would integrate with. To help us make this decision, we came up a with criteria and as we started going down our list, there was a very clear winner.
Earlier this year we announced our ‘Works with Nest’ integration and are extremely thrilled to be able to contribute towards a more thoughtful home. We’ve listed the highlights of why we decided to work with Nest below.
Why ‘Works with Nest’
- Meaningful Experiences
We wanted to make sure we were focusing on use cases that actually mattered in the home. What if unnecessary lights and appliances could automatically turn off during peak energy hours? Or if all dangerous electrical appliances could be disconnected from power in case of a fire? Before we discussed any of the technical challenges, we worked with the ‘Works with Nest’ team very closely to hone in on these use cases. It became clear that an exceptional user experience was core to every ‘Works with Nest’ integration. - Device Communication Protocol
Since the communications never happen directly with the Nest devices, developers are not tied to using any standard. You can develop hardware that communicates using WiFi, Bluetooth Smart, or Zigbee — as long your hardware or app can connect to the internet, you can can access the Nest API. - Software Architecture
You are free to develop a client app on any platform — setting up the iOS Firebase client was pretty straightforward. Authentication is handled through OAuth2.0. We had an MVP running in a few days, and had v1.0 of the feature set fully integrated into our app in less than 45 days. - Special Requirements
There were no special hardware requirements for ‘Works with Nest’. This was crucial, since we were already deep in our product development cycle and any special hardware changes would set us back months. - Developer Support
Documentation can only get you so far — the ‘Works with Nest’ team has been there at every step to help us build a better integration. Even though we are very young startup, they’ve made us feel like a very valued partner on their platform from Day 1.
To learn more about Zuli’s partnerships, visit our partnerships page.
