Humanising Interconnectedness
System Design | Humanising Products | Internet of Things | User Experience | Service Design
Sponsor: Samsung Design Delhi
Year: 2018
Design Brief
A systemic study for humanising interconnected products;
maximizing delight factors and seamlessness for the SmartThings platform.
Samsung SmartThings app is a platform to connect with the devices and possibly automate to fit into the consumer's daily routine. But the customisation of the automation proves to be a higher cognitive load for the consumer. This project attempts to reduce the cognitive load, by personalisation of the automated routines, thereby improving the integration. The concept created was guided from the industry stand-point and validated by user testing through mock-ups and prototype. By incorporating the personalisation layer to the already existing customisation layer, servitizes the technology in a humanised way increasing the seamlessness of workflows.
Understanding the Context
System Mapping
Internet of Things concept was understood through multiple perspectives- Social Internet of Thing, Internet of Everything, Internet of People. Connecting the weak signals observed and the present scenario, the context was understood coupled with consumer behaviour and servitization of products.
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Assimilation
Using the system mapping, certain directions were charted, that the project could take. These directions were the result of the meaning-making of different concepts and how one affects the other. The future directions were the guidelines for designing a concept for the deliverable.
Ideations
Using the directions gained from the assimilation, understanding the current offerings of the SmartThings platform, a benchmark study of competitor platforms and gaining inspiration from other services; initial concepts were crafted for the context.
01
Usage of Home Automation is limited to the devices that a consumer owns. It is apotential staging platform for the experiences to be built on. With the automation routines known, and the times that they have been triggered, the service can suggest the devices that could be added to the automation for a better experience. Samsung already has an online buying infrastructure present- Samsung Mall. With such intelligent suggestions, Samsung can nudge people into buying Samsung smart Home appliances or appliances compatible with SmartThings.
02
The physical and digital behaviours are highly interconnected with each other now. Using the machine learning capabilities of a Smart Home platform to form patterns of behaviours and setting of preferences accordingly. Real-time Realignment of actions and triggers is required to make it a dynamic automation system with the purpose of serving the user.
03
The concept revolves around the ability of interconnectedness among the things to evolve in the smartness that they offer. This concept can be an added feature to the wearables that Samsung offers. The ability to understand the mood of the user is a key in delivering a superior service to the consumer to delight them in ways that is unpredictable. The concept is a gateway to enhancement of the humanization of things by integrating native or third party services to create an environment in the home spaces.
Storyboards
Concept Detailing
The outcome of the Ideations and explorations are synthesized in making of the concept which is two-fold. The User Interface is a medium to deliver the concept and not the outcome.
Active Automation
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List of automations
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Active status
Realtime status of the appliances in the current space; presence in which is also detected.
A list of all the other spaces present in the house, with devices present in each of them.
The Active Automation concept is designed towards getting the gratification closer to the present real-time scenarios as compared to the future ones.
The hassle of having to go through multiple screen transitions, and envisioning the automation beforehand, is suppressed, by having the option to actively set the automation by using the status of the appliance at a particular given time.
Suggested Automation
The pattern is generated by observing the interactions made with Smart home appliances and devices. Out of all the behaviour mapped through different triggering attributes- Presence, time spent in the given space, repeatability of actions, etc; Patterns are generated and based on the commonalities of certain activities automated workflows are designed automatically and presented to the consumer in the form of automated routines.
List of Active Automations
List of suggested un-toggled automations
Appliances used in the automation
Customising Personalisation
Personalising Customisation
It's date night! I am at an Italian restaurant with my wife and have got a menu full of dishes that I can order from. I ask the waiter for dish recommendations- he points out some. I am still confused about what to order as it is an unfamiliar cuisine for me. My wife, on the other hand, is an avid foodie with her favorite cuisine being Italian and she knows my likes and dislikes. She sensed my confusion, looked at me, and pointed out the dishes that I might like.
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The waiter recommended the dishes based on what is statistically liked by most people. It lacks personalisation. Whereas my wife knows me well enough to suggest dishes that I might like and responds accordingly.
Responsiveness encompases three things:
• Understanding: The partner knows how one sees themselves and what is important to them.
• Validation: The partner respects the existence and values the wants and needs.
• Caring: The partner takes active and supportive steps in helping the needs to be met.
Change in the relationship between the product and the consumer from Master-Butler to a Companion kind is the essence of Servitization of Products. And the concept achieves that with keeping the ease and needs of the consumer in mind.
A Metaphor
Customisation
The image is a metaphorical representation of Customization where in the conductor is the consumer and the appliances are the musicians playing the music- which is the experience gained when the appliances work in tandem. The phone being the representation of the platform or the staging area where the experience is construed.
Personalisation
The above image here is the metaphorical representation of Personlalization wherein the role of the conductor is changed from the consumer to the service provider conducting the experience (music) provided by the appliances (musicians). The audience being the consumers and enjoying the experience that is enabled by the orchestra.
Low Fidelity Prototyping and User Testing
Humanising Interconnectedness