IoT to Notification of Things
Mark Weiser’s (father of ubiquitous computing) vision for the future was “technologies that disappear.” But, counter to his idea, technologies are designed to be loud attention seekers. They call for attention using notification, and they keep us entrapped (“engaged”) in them with infinite scrolling. How can we prevent “Internet of Things” from becoming “Trap of Things”? How can we make better IoT devices?
Current Landscape
To answer the question, I took a closer look at 100 IoT devices to understand good and bad examples of the vision by Mark Weiser. Here are a few common ways the devices failed in achieving this goal.
Let’s look at some of the problems in detail.
Tug of war for attention
Have you ever tried to work on an assignment but ended up jumping between Netflix, Youtube, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. These apps/ websites play a continuous tug of war for our attention and end up increasing our procrastination. They send us a notification to pull our attention towards them and then keep us engaged in them forever [Link]. Some apps send a separate notification for the same posts on watch, mobile, and browser. Plugins like “Stay Focussed” or phones like “Light Phone” have sprung up which help in de-cluttering our limited attention span. Slack manages notifications by providing the option to snooze notifications for a duration of time. But does this solve the problem? Can we make our apps or devices even smarter?
What if devices were designed to support our tasks instead of pulling us away from them?
One-for-all
We adapt based on where we are, who we are with. So, why do our interfaces behave differently? We see the same apps/ same screen whether we are at home, at work, in the gym or at a party. Why should that be? Shouldn’t interfaces change or different apps show up based on where we are? An excellent example of where it does happen is with Android Auto. Android Auto app changes how notifications are displayed and increases the overall target size and size of elements so that it is visible from a distance. It “adapts” to the context of the user.
What if? The android screen changed completely with the context/ task (imagine gym)?
‘App’yfying everything
We are using a lot of smart devices like a smart lock and smart lights, but interactions with these devices are not necessarily smart. For Example, you want to change the color of your smart light. You unlock your phone, open the app, find the app, and then finally change the color of the light. Is there a way to make this interaction smarter/ faster? Is this interaction scalable in our future smart homes with 10–20 smart devices? One interesting example of app-less interaction is when August smart lock opens up as it sees the user approaching it.
What if our phones were smarter and could open the right app at the right time when we need it?
Smartphone bubbles
Some friends are sitting in a room with their headphones on, listening to their music. Sitting next to each other yet lost in their own devices? Sounds familiar? Technology has been blamed for decreasing social interaction in a closed space like the dinner table, party. It has created a virtual bubble around each discouraging face-to-face interaction with people. We have designed apps/ devices that promote individualistic interaction. All the shared interactions in mobile happen in the online world but not with a person sitting next to us. You will be playing a game on your mobile, and the person sitting next to you will be playing his own game, why not a shared experience?
What if technology could promote shared experiences in shared spaces?
Is there notification for that?
Fruits get soft and squishy when they start getting bad; flowers start changing color when they start to dry, and vegetables start smelling when they start getting bad. But, our “smart oven” sends a notification when it starts cooking, another notification when it’s done, another if you leave it for too long. Why don’t the devices use more diverse means of communication? An excellent example of this is Cozmo. Instead of showing an icon to show that it’s charging, it starts snoring to show that. It gets angry and throws tantrums when it loses instead of displaying the “play again” message.
What if all the devices had their own language? For Example — a smart lamp will starts withering like a flower when its battery is low, instead of sending notification.
Technological Drift
We imagine a world where our locks, fridge, even toilets are connected to the internet. Most IoT devices are designed to tasks for us — to open doors, turn on lights, drive us around, but what would happen if the technology failed? What if our smart doorknob ran out of battery or if we forgot our phone or if our phone was dead? What if sensors of self-driving car stop working? Would we feel helpless, unable to the open door, unable to move from a spot?
What if technology was like our friend rather than our assistant? (It supports us rather than doing the work for us.)
What’s Next?
Intel predicts that the average person will be connected and interacting with 26 smart devices daily. With the number of devices increasing, this problem will get worse as we move towards a connected future. This means that we need to re-think design strategies for IoT devices.
To design better IoT devices, we need to have a better understanding of how users’ interact with the objects around them. I am in the final stages of a month-long observation and Diary Entry studies with users’, trying to discover the micro-interaction that we have with objects and environments around us.
