Laundry-free life in IoT ecosystems
This article is a reflection on the IoT Solutions World Congress (IoTSWC) held from 29th to 31st October 2019 in Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue. It brought together more than 400 speakers and 400 exhibiting companies which design/use IoT solutions. Some of them are Dell, Ericsson, Google Cloud, Wipro, Bosch Software Innovations, GE Current, Hitachi, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAS.
The choice of hardware components defines technical possibilities and limitations such as software compatibility, communication modules, network connectivity and possible ways of user interaction. It directly affects User Experience Design (UXD).
Each person generates plenty of data while using their mobile devices, a connected car with eCall emergency solutions, vehicle telematics, navigation systems, mobile wallets, as well as different smart home IoT solutions. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the concept of interconnecting physical devices embedded with sensors and software, collecting the data from devices to dedicated servers or a cloud, and transferring/sharing data over the internet. IoT collected data are being analyzed and used by User Experience (UX) Researchers and Designers to help municipalities, enterprises, and citizens with different goals and needs.
Hardware matters
Motion, sound, light, or image processing sensors are detecting information from the environment and converting it into predefined actions that should be implemented by a smart device. Company IoTsens provides scalable and interoperable vertical solutions to collect and exchange data, connecting physical devices and data usage to maximize benefits for end-users. Their sensor-based solutions find appliances in households, offices, smart cities and industries. A good example would be a water metering and management system, that detects any damage or leakage in real-time.
Another company, UVAX offers tailored electronics manufacturing and logistics services for a wide range of needs. They have experience in various fields: Traffic Sensor Industry; Swimming pool water quality monitoring and equipment; Remote metrics, analysis, and management of electricity consumption in homes, industry, and shops; Controlling commercial juicers and vending machines; Detection of pests in agriculture.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) had very remarkable participation at the IoTSWC 2019. HPE IoT platform simplifies multiple data management for businesses and allows them to increase productivity and data security. HPE supports the Circular economy and Supply chain responsibility.
How to deal with so many variables?
Establishing and maintaining a coherent UX and UI design in an IoT ecosystem is challenging. A product development team should approach with great patience and flexibility in order to achieve optimal usability and interoperability under a common UI. There are many variables to handle such as:
- A great diversity of user groups
- Various needs, purposes, and industries
- Different device types
- Network connectivity level
- Multiple data types and categories
- Different Operational Systems
- Data security
Resource efficiency & laundry-free life
How can big data help with using a minimum of time, materials, energy, efforts and money, while achieving personal or professional goals?
Could you imagine an average young parent in the near future? She/he lives in an average smart city. Her/his smart home is equipped with a Smart Laundry Machine. The user is able to start a washing program manually, or using a predefined action on his smartphone. For example, the machine starts a washing/drying program every Thursday at 15:00. That laundry machine is fully automatized, with the ability to pull/suck in the laundry from incorporated storages. Such a complete process of washing/drying would give any user a comfort of laundry-free life and better personal management. In numbers - every year would last at least seven days longer. Woo-hoo!
UXD in IoT ecosystems
Our homes can become radically smarter even before the era of Superintelligence when machines will possibly know humans better than humans know themselves. In the meanwhile, UX Designers will be engaged to watch, listen and create for people who need to allocate their time, from repetitive processes to a much more meaningful interaction with their friends and family.
I have never accepted the repetitive and useless process of doing laundry and would rather do any kind of compensation. Name it. My flatmate once tried to help me get inspired: “Hey c’mon Jo, this is like a meditation, look.” I agreed, for a tiny moment. However, if someone tends to enjoy the slow way, in any segment of life, then it should stay like that. Smart homes will definitely not become super-smart overnight. Until we wait for the laundry machines of tomorrow, here are some useful tips for all the people who suffer.
