Interusability: designing a coherent system UX

Interusability:
designing a
coherent
system UX
Claire Rowland
@clurr
Thingscon Amsterdam 2015

“This is more than a UX book; it covers all of
the critical design and technology issues around
making great connected products.”
DAVID ROSE, ENCHANTED
OBJECTS
“As a grizzled veteran of several campaigns
within the matter-battle of the Internet of
Things, I was pleasantly surprised to ﬁnd the
number of times this book made me pause,
think, and rethink my own work (and that of
others).A very valuable addition to the canon of
design thinking in this emerging area.”
MATT JONES, GOOGLE
“Connected products are a unique beast.
Designing this type of product well takes lots of
iterations & user testing.This book takes you
through the paces.We keep one on the shelf at
Highway1 for our IoT companies.” 
BRADY FORREST, HIGHWAY1.IO

Visions of IoT often look like this
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/heck-internet-things-dont-yet/

…but the reality is often new ways to fail
‘It’s a bit glitchy but it’s OK, you just have to be in
the room at the same time’.

It’s not just UI and industrial design

Users have to understand systems
- Functionality and interactions are distributed across multiple devices, often
with different capabilities
- Systems are inherently harder to understand
- We are much better at thinking about things than about relationships
between things
Images: Withings

Image: Nissim Farim
We don’t (yet)
expect
Things to
behave like
the Internet
The average consumer is going
to ﬁnd it very strange when
objects take time to respond, or
lose instructions.

Conceptual models
How does the system work?

3 part diagram:
Value
proposition
Conceptual
model
Interaction
model
What does it do? How does it work? How do I use it?
Image: Instructables Image: How It Works Daily

Non-connected products are
(usually) conceptually simple

Connected products are more complex
Product images: Philips

Connectedness
requires users
to think about
system models
- Which bit does what?
- Where does code
run?
- What fails/still works
if connectivity is lost?

It’s extra stuff to think about
Product images: LIFX, Philips, Cree
In addition to price, aesthetics and features, customers have to understand how a product
connects and whether that meets their needs.

You can explain the system model...
BERG Cloud bridge: transparent network commsLowes Iris: showing the
connection to the hub

What actually happensWhat the user needs to know
…or simplify the conceptual model

Interusability
Creating a coherent system UX
Cross-Platform Service User Experience:A Field Study and an Initial Framework. Minna Wäljas, Katarina Segerståhl, KaisaVäänänen-
Vainio-Mattila, Harri Oinas-Kukkonen MobileHCI’10: http://bugi.oulu.ﬁ/~ksegerst/publications/p219-waljas.pdf

Composition
How functionality is distributed across devices

Distribute functionality to suit the
context of use
(Nearly) all interactions via phone app Interactions mirrored on phone and
thermostat
Image: Tado Images: ecobee

In app, on device, or both?
Product images: BlueSpray, skydrop

Minimal elegance? Or missing
features?
Product images: drop

Consistency
Appropriate consistency across UIs and interactions

“Users should not have to worry
whether different words, situations
or actions mean the same thing.
Follow platform conventions.”
- Words, data and actions
- Aesthetic/visual design
- Interaction architecture: how
functionality is organised
- Interaction logic: how tasks are
structured, the types of control
used
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
What is it…

“Users should not have to worry
whether different words, situations
or actions mean the same thing.
Follow platform conventions.”
Consistency != make everything the
same
“Users should not have
to worry whether
different words,
situations or actions
mean the same thing.“
(Jakob Nielsen)
but also
“Follow platform
conventions.”
Image: Made by Many

Top priority: terminology
However different the UIs, identical functions must
have the same name (Images: British Gas)

Follow device platform
conventions… be true to the device
A touchscreen does not need a fake
bezel
A thermostat does not have to pretend to
be an iPhone
Images: Nest

Aesthetic styling
“Click”
Nest use visual and audio cues to tie the thermostat and phone app together
Images: Nest

Interaction architecture need not be
the same
- The logical structure of UI
features and controls is likely to
be platform dependent
- Different features may be
prioritised on different devices
- Devices with limited UIs may
need deeper hierarchies
Legacy hardware UIs may be arcane, but
that need not restrict other device UIs

Continuity
Fluent cross-device interactions: designing for the network

What is it…
- The flow of interactions and
data in a coherent sequence
across devices
- Continuity helps the user feel as
if they are interacting with the
service, not a bunch of separate
devices
Image: Kei Noguchi via CC licence

Continuity is not always about
seamlessness… it often means handling
interstitial states gracefully
Some technical context:
- Some IoT devices have batteries and only connect intermittently
to conserve power. In conventional UX we assume devices are
mostly connected, but many IoT devices may spend more time
offline
- Networks are subject to latency (esp. the internet) and reliability
issues. People have mental models that help them understand
this online, but delays and failures might feel strange in physical
objects
Image: New Wave DV

Latency and reliability
BERG Cloudwash prototype
Cross-device interactions won’t always be smooth and immediate

We expect
switches to work
like this
- The switch both conﬁrms the
user action and shows the state
of the lamp
- But in reality, latency and
reliability issues mean this can’t
be guaranteed over a network
- The user can’t tell whether their
action has been executed or
whether it’s in progress

Option 1:  
the white lie
Conﬁrm action, backpedal if
something goes wrong

Instagram do this
The photo is already shown as
‘liked’, even though the instruction
is still being sent

So does Hue…
Let me think about that…
nope

Option 2:  
be transparent
- Acknowledge action, show that
it is in progress
- Conﬁrm state change only
once it’s done

Chrome Web Lab’s stretchy blobs
Image: Domus

Lowes Iris is more explicit
Images: Lowes

Intermittency
19
2 min delay
21
When some devices that only check into the network occasionally,
there may be conﬂicting information about the status of the system.
Data/actions may need to be timestamped.

Safety critical/urgent Low touch/non-critical
Senior safety/intruder alarm
Energy monitorLightingBaby monitor
How acceptable is uncertainty?
Images: MyLively, Efergy

Fuzzy & timely or precise but old
[Flossie: is here!
[11.32]
Mr Pickles was here at 15.02
Mr Pickles is around
here now

Networked physical UIs
If you’ve used physical controls that represent state, how do they reﬂect
changes made via the digital UI?

You may need to use different types of
physical control
Conventional dimmer Connected dimmer
…ones that don’t reﬂect state, or can be
updated digitally with motors or displays

Communicate the system model or simplify the
conceptual model
Distribute functionality between UIs to suit the
context of use
Appropriate consistency between UIs
Design for the network as well as the touchpoints
Physical UIs no longer stand alone and may need
to evolve

Tesler’s law of the conservation of complexity:
As you make the user
interaction simpler you
make things more
complicated for the
designer or engineer
Larry Tesler, formerVP of Apple

Want a book?
Tweet @clurr and say
I want DCP
First 3 win!
@clurr | claire@clairerowland.com
www.designingconnectedproducts.com
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Interusability: designing a coherent system UX

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