According to a study, IoT spending will rise by 12.6% worldwide. But dealing with innovative technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) is like bending fireballs for a living. While planning IoT UX design, challenges like improving the usability of user experience for the labyrinth of multi-layered dynamics of a physical device, things might go a little out of hands. You must consider the basics of planning a pragmatic approach, before reaching out for the best UX/UI Design Agency in India.
We will discuss what are the parameters that make creating a consistent user experience for IoT a herculean task and how you can begin building an IoT UX Strategy.
1. Divergent nature of the devices
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The IoT design solutions for specialized systems require to collect data from numerous devices and display on various interfaces or modems. This creates certain challenges in the field of UX.
Challenge A:
The end-user has to read or access the collected data on a phone or computer. There could be multiple end-users and their need for nature information would also vary. The challenge remains to make this data collected from APIs and cloud flow in as per the users’ needs.
Challenge B:
There are possibilities that the IoT systems are constantly changing with devices being replaced as per demand in the fields. This would create a challenge to collect data from the new infrastructure and merge it for comprehensive consumption by the end-users.
Challenge C:
The basic yet challenging part of UX is uniformity. Displaying unified data in a smartphone and a screen on a machine is not going to be easy for the code writers. The developer has to understand the experience and design the experience as per the usage of the complex IoT ecosystem.
“If you think that the internet has changed your life, think again. The IoT is about to change it all over again!” — Brendan O’Brien
2. Keeping up with hardware
When it comes to IoT design, hardware selection is done on the basis of specs and costs. The major concerns that impact the buyer’s decision are:
Compatibility of the real-time operating system
Flexibility to merge various interfaces
A custom-fit system as per requirements
Cost-effectiveness
User experience is mentioned nowhere in the above bullets. In order to process communication and monitor data, a lower-cost system would only result in compromising the extension of many functionalities. Appropriate hardware components are necessary for improved IoT UX design.
One of the best UX / UI Design Agency in India, Mumbai, EvolutionCo stays ahead of the technology curve, ensuring that their UX design is future-proofed.
3. Connecting the dots
The market for IoT wearables is 3 billion dollars itself. There has been a sudden drop (20 percent) for analog devices and rise for smart wearables.
But network connectivity is crucial to operating the IoT devices smoothly. The selection of connectivity protocol determines how the devices would respond in network-friendly urban areas or remote belts. Few conditions that the designer should consider are:
There would be many IoT solutions connected to basic devices.
Devices connected to unreliable devices should respond after going offline.
There should be provision to map and merge missing data.
The cached data should be read and sent when the device is back online.
While creating a user experience for IoT the designer has to keep these scenarios in mind to answer all the expectations raised in the field. Any agency that considers themselves the best UX / UI Design Agency in India, Mumbai would pay special attention to this point.
4. One for all, all for one
IoT products are typically developed on an IoT platform to support a wide range of elements like:
Hardware
Connectivity
Data Collection
Rules
Rules
Actions
Application development
Analytics
The UX design team has to understand how all these modules work together in an IoT ecosystem and what are the modules that the end-user will not be able to access. This insight will help the team to render a consistent and coherent UX experience.
5. Third-party vendor integrations
The no. 1 consumer concern will be third party integrations. While working with the third-party integrations, it becomes difficult for the UX designer to bring data collected from removed and newly installed devices into a central location. The various sensors, processors, controllers, platforms, and applications also make it more complex for the user experience to remain intact.
If done right, it would help you raise productivity by 25%. The best UX / UI Design Agency in India, Mumbai would be able to ensure easy integration of third-party applications.
6. Conclusion
Building trust between a human and a machine in daily scenarios requires deep expertise, as there would be no visibility of devices for the user to trust the underlying data. Better user experience for IoT can be created by:
Send a regular status update to build trust.
A dashboard that allows the user to check insights.
An engaging path of analytics that keeps the user at ease.
A transparent design that helps decision making during emergencies.
When trying to pick-out the best UX / UI Design Agency in India these are interesting aspects to touch upon to find out if they are the right agency to make your IoT UX design. And, make certain that your IoT UX strategy includes these points.