Internet of Things (IoT) is about to invade our daily lives in a way that is unthinkable by any other form of technology. We see a life, when we approach our home that the apps on our smartphones will open up the garage, puts on the electricity and prepares the coffee for us. We can also keep track of persons intruding on our home or even entertain our guests by letting them enter into our homes, without our presence. This is all about an excellent experience for us.
User experience caters to the design of a service or product, fulfilling the needs of the user. Usually a research is conducted on the User Experience, to thoroughly understand the users and assess what is their needs. User experience includes interactions with services, products and devices and are characterized by certain features like:
Appealing aesthetics, easy usability, smooth communications and technical support above all. Everything that is used by the users falls under user experience.
Like any other company, the IoT based organizations are also looking for a good user experience, because an appropriate user experience will mean that there are dedicated, loyal customers for their business. We see that the smart businesses on IoT are always pushing their efforts towards the positive end of the spectrum, where the bottom line happens to be user experience. User Experience is such a vital factor that a study has found that companies have trebled on their revenue as a result of it.
How is the User Experience for Internet of Things Different?
Designing for the Internet of Things raises the challenges on cross-platform. While considering these devices we have much wider variety of device form factors and many of these devices are not accompanied with screens. In these solutions, even a simple device becomes complicated with, as it is a part of the system comprising of interconnected services, users and devices. On top of these many of these devices are intermittently connected. So, parts of the system will be out of sync and this creates discontinuities in user experience.
There are many components for User Experience for the Internet of Things based solutions. Following are some these:
Impeccable Usability of the Device
For anyone with lowest comfort on technology, the setting up, operating and maintaining the Internet of Things based solutions must be easy. The usage of these devices must be much simpler than the already existing non-IoT devices. The devices must pass the industry-recognized usability tests and must comply with the benchmark user satisfaction.
Seamless Integration with Human Psychology
Internet of things is a new technology that will simply pull out the people outside their comfort zones and this is only possible when the humans will be able to get something meaningful with the minimum of efforts. The users must put all their faith on the devices when the devices will lead to saving their valuable time.
Moreover, the humans must be able to trust these devices as not intruding in their private lives and they must be convinced that theses devices will not be taking any actions that are not reversible by humans or change with human interactions. An example is withdrawal of data from health monitoring and exercise devices, without even taking the permission of the users.
Offering Superior Technology
If the product is not upto the mark, then no matter whatever amount of marketing and advertisements are done, the product will be unable to obtain the user’s trust. Word of mouth will only ensure that the device is superior and efficient.
Furthermore, there is a service around the IoT based devices, as the behaviour of the device is dependent on another program that resides on another device on the same network. So, the service for the device also forms a critical factor for the delivery of the User Experience, as much importance is laid on the device itself.
The UX design will ensure that the it meets the expectations and needs of the customers in an exceedingly better way.
Appinventiv is one of the top rated app development company, that have seen an outstanding pace of growth, in a matter of two years time. They have worked extensively in the various verticals like restaurant, health, learning, entertainment and many more. They believe in delivering user-centric apps for their customers, utilizing cutting edge technologies.