IoT — Users want experience not technology platforms

IoT — Users want experience not technology platforms

IoT — Users want experience not technology platforms

Technology companies in IoT tend to work in a silo. I recently met the CEO of an IoT focused technology company and took more than an hour to prove our point — ‘nobody cares about your hyped-up IoT platform and its amazing cross protocol integration with various robotic devices. What people care about is their experience when interacting with your awesome technology.’ The demo and the discussion kept reminding me of Don Norman’s example of the complicated dashboard of a nuclear power plant, full of strange knobs and controls, all of them potential error points.

The user experience in Internet of Things is based on a few simple paradigms

1. The devices that collect data — These are the sensors and devices that collect loads of data from different ‘dumb’ devices. Users wants to have sleek, beautiful looking devices (think nest) to attach to their existing appliances or in front of their houses.

2. Controls and Alerts to users on personal devices — The user demands control of the connected devices and needs to get alerts of any change or additional data points from the sensors on his personal device.

3. Making sense of the large data collected — Collecting individual points of data around the user and giving him meaningful information that mirrors his needs and behaviors.