UX Design for the IoT

It looks like we have passe the "app" hype. Started by Apple in 2008 it lasted more or less to 2012. And now apps are commodity. Yes there will be hits like the Angry Birds and there is a strong foundation of apps most of us use daily, but apps are no longer sexy. Apps in 2013 have become a commodity.

In 2013 the new phenomenon called the Internet of Things (IoT) has started dwarfing the app cycle. What is now IoT has begun as M2M (Machine-to-Machine communications) several years ago. And now in the IoT of 2013 a new trend has been created: every thing needs an app. Whatever appears on Engadget and is not a phone or a laptop or a tablet, has its own app. From music systems to bicycles to shoes, they all start coming app-enabled.

And the manufacturers start slowly to realize the user experience of the accompanying app is becoming equally, or even more important, compared to the "thing" itself. The reason is, for many things, it is the app the users interact with in the first place, not the thing itself.

Dropcam is a good example. They have designed a beautiful connected camera. It really stands apart. But for most users, it is a fire-and-forget thing (as long as it works). On a daily basis tehy see it through the Dropcam app. Which, while functional, is not as sexy as the Dropcam itself. There is much more to improve in the look and feel of the app than in the look and feel of the physical Dropcam.

This all seems obvious, but I have (almost) fallen prey to the fascination of the physical form of the new version of our home control unit we're developing at wiho.me. We've developed the guidelines for the industrial design agency that is helping us in this process. They have all been focused on the hardware. Somehow forgetting the accompanying app. And thankfully the designers came back to us saying "hey, what about the app experience?". I am really grateful to them for bringing us down to Earth. Yes, the physical form is important. But ultimately, in the IoT world, the users interact with the "things" via apps 90% of time, only the remaining 10% is direct physical interaction. And this has to be addressed from the start, and reflected in development time, effort and budget. If we spend 100k on enclosure, we should spend 1M on the app UX.

After all iPhone has not been successful because it has been flat and square (OK, with rounded corners). But because the software UX experience has been phenomenal from day one. There have been many square and flat phones on the market in 2008. But their app UX was mediocre. Yes, in the iPhone, it has been the software that matters, since the very beginning. Today it is the software that matters in every thing.