IOT Devices built better with User Experience
How have IOT devices changed the course of life?
Are you still using a Sphygmomanometer to check your blood pressure? Do you still go a Veterinarian to check if your dog’s diet is balanced? I am assuming you have not heard of iHealth BP5 Wireless Blood Pressure Wrist Monitor or RightBite from PetTrax. Now you don’t need to monitor all your applications or should I say every “thing” around you. From connecting people to people, the internet has poised to connect things to things. “Welcome to the world of IOT Devices”.
Is it a fork or a pen?
Are you tired of message alerts, cab alerts, food delivery alerts? The folk alert could be the new vibration in your phone. The HAPIfork, powered by Slow Control, is an electronic fork that helps you monitor and track your eating habits. It measures the following for the dashboard to give you readings.
- Time taken to eat your meal.
- Fork serving per minute.
- The time interval between two fork servings.
Just imagine a client meeting, with a fork in your pocket. Pretty awkward, right? If that is the fork you are going to eat all your noodles with, carrying it to should be made easy. How about a pen convertible fork? Carry it anywhere you wish to. Moreover, visualize a dashboard for fork speed, another for Google Fit to count calorie. Too many dashboards to keep your eye on. If they could simply club the dashboards to make the usability better. “Haptik connected to Google Fit”. An IOT device saving some embarrassment and much more.
When Hairbrush met the Mirror
Aren’t we all fed up of hair lying on the floor? It does make us think if the amount of hair we are losing is normal. If only we could correct our brushing skills. The wait is over Guys!! L’Oréal has launched a hairbrush that collects data as soon as you start brushing. It is similar to owning a Personal Hairdresser all the time.
The inbuilt microphone detects the following:
- Manageability
- Frizziness
- Dryness
- Split ends
- Breakage
But wait for a second, did you read the heading right? Yes, there is already a smart mirror which you can control, it displays the map, time, weather conditions. Also, you could switch off the lights using it.
How about hairbrush readings displayed on your smart mirror? While combing you could have an idea if you are going rough on your hair, when do you need to oil it or when could you schedule an appointment for a haircut. An era of “No Bad Hair Days”. Woohoo!!!!
Is GoodBudget really good?
Expense managing applications are like frosting on a dessert, for people who are laid back in tracking their expenses and savings. In my opinion, GoodBudget has it all to be the best in the market. But, every now and then when you make a transaction, you have to feed it on the application. That is some expectation from us, lazy peeps!
We love to hear stuff like “5 in 1 combo”, “get the benefits of all the applications in one”, “all the musicians in one concert”; Guess what! there is a BPAY card which could store all your credit/debit cards in a single card. The BPAY application helps you swipe every card you wish to use to get hoarded in the BPAY card. And, the small button on top helps you juggle between your card. You could choose the card you want at the time of a transaction. Imagine not carrying all the cards in your wallet. Your driving license could have the air to breathe now. Wow, right?
Have you found the link yet, of the two devices I mentioned above? Yes, we could connect our BPAY card to GoodBudget. And, any transaction made would be stored automatically. This IOT Device will let us Netflix and chill on weekends. YAY!
To Smarter Schools through IOT!
Gone are the days where teachers called parents to know about kid’s activities. Muse Headband is a device which reports brain activities of students to teachers on an interface. This amazing IOT device helps teachers strategize their learning methods. In addition to it, a chatbot to interact with parents on a daily basis can completely call-off dreaded parent-teacher meetings.
Smart Shoes for Blind – all thanks to IOT!
There are already shoes for the blind which help them navigate through obstacles. These shoes give you an alert the moment you reach a bump. Pity the time, when the blind crosses a road. His phone beeping wouldn’t stop and could reach a point to cause him a hearing aid. Alas!
When there are a lot of alerts, it should be categorized direction-wise and conveyed as a single alert.
Some other noteworthy IOT Innovations
5. Health Tech getting disrupted with hand gesture interaction
To Conclude:
IOT has the potential to make everything physical, digital. Unexploited User Experience is the basic reason for crawling pace of its mass adoption. Majority of the population don’t know about IOT. And, a very few who know about it, are unaware of its value. There is a huge opportunity for designers to explore the terrains of interaction and experience. Emerging technologies have claimed to solve user’s problems, but none of the products have yet earned dire admiration from its users. People using a product vs people taking pride in it are two very different propositions.
Product managers have to question how they would want their product to stand the test of time? How can you fill the gaps between creating breakthroughs in technology and empathizing with the user? Technology is key to differentiating any product, but user experience makes the final impression. Leveraging User Experience for better user onboarding, data management, security will give IOT devices the bragging they deserve.
