Why is IoT Technology with an emphatic User Experience essential today?

The key to IoT is connecting the diverse range of objects, devices, and system over the internet connection. The higher will be the devices connected, the more will be the users’ lives become easier. Many companies are testing the water with a slew of sensor-embedded devices in order to take the connectivity to a whole new level and redefine the IoT product. However, they are failing to understand the complexity which increasing mode of interactions and technology advancements are bringing to the table.

The unanimous focus of developers and IoT product creators on building IoT connected product prioritizing the digital strategies won’t bring the success because they forgot it’s the end user who has to interact with the product. Designing the user experience is a natural component of IoT technology, which makes the app bespoke and delight the users.

The conceptualization of brilliant UI and UX designing enables the companies to tap the full potential, meet the users’ needs in a satisfactory manner, and let the user continuously use the product.

The pace of technology advancement is making IoT apps more prevalent and common in daily lives, which is a sign that user experience in the IoT app cannot be overlooked.

Here are the reasons that explain in detail why companies cannot discount the role of user experience in IoT development:

IoT User Experience

Communicate The Brand Experience Beyond Pixels

The IoT technology is all about improving the brand awareness not with the company logos, taglines, or the fonts of the content, but through voice, tone, and tactile feedback. The companies must design every touch point with meticulous attention, else risk annoying the user, which leads to product abandonment.

Especially, in the age of personalized experience where offering real-time services in context is essential. Considering the environmental context while designing helps in taking the right decisions.

For instance, the in-home connected products will prioritize home safety, sharing, and data privacy controls where the safety-related information is sent to the users on a mobile app. On the other hand, when it comes to the auto manufacturer, they prioritize building safety alerts for wearable devices rather than mobile while the user is driving.

For keeping the user context chief to design, the technologies need to be deprioritized for the IoT product sake. It adds value to the product, branding the product beyond technology, and zero down the probability of getting the brand forgotten by the users.

Going Users Way- Preferring Quality Over Quantity

Certainly, the IoT apps have reimagined the users’ lives by turning unimaginable things into reality. A day after another, the new features and sensors are creating a space in the connected world. It leads to a bundle of IoT products offering the same services.

To stand out in the competition and get to the heart of the users, crafting the IoT apps that have a bunch of necessary features which make things done easily on a simple UI delights the users.

Giving more preference to the quality by understanding the users of the product and how they use the product, enables the companies to create a product that always remains simple, smart, and popular. Approaching the product development through the lens of user experience means plugging in the right set of features and integrations in the product that makes it a perfect fit for every user.

The Multiple Interface And Data Points Makes The Product Complex

The IoT solution handles several data types from the multitude of devices on a user interface that works seamlessly across all the devices. Later, accessing the data types from the numerous devices together for better visualization on any interface like- phone, desktop, or on-site screen makes the design incredibly complex.

With such diversity at distinct levels, the different types of users cannot access the information in a better way, which frustrate them. With technology progress, the new data points are changing that makes challenging to adapt the UI in such situations.

By unifying the product feel across various interfaces through a simple UI designing or coding the UI in basic environments like- Linux, helps in aligning the product with the user experience. Also, adding flexibility to the product to add new or reflect changes in the data points enable the UI to seamlessly adapt the changes on various devices.

The consistent look and feel remove the complexity and prevent the product to interfere with the user experience due to the diversity of interfaces and data points.

Enhance The Usability

The outstanding user experience creates value for the users by boosting the product’s usability. The high usability ensures that the product is up-to-the-mark, and live up to the user’s expectations.

The user experience is a key that communicates the user’s preferences, express the needs, and signal intent in the real-time, that’s a bar of gold for the companies to serve the users, the users’ way.

The sensors embedded in the IoT products with continuous monitoring and analyzation enable the companies to discover the improvements and constantly inform about the improvements required in user-facing and operational use cases, which never let the companies lose the sight of the customers.

The regular interaction with the users and analysis helps in learning the blind spots and gathering the deeper insights for consistently improving the performance, which in turn, keep the product always the best with an eye of usability.

Also Read: Revamp your Logistics Management system by integrating IoT and GPS technology

Build Trust

The user experience is married to trust because the user-centered design, features, and functions make the users feel that the product is built for them. Additionally, when the users have transparency into the nitty-gritty of the products, they feel more confident about the product, which in turn, build the trust.

The IoT solution combining the real and digital world when offers the right information, there is no way that the user can deny the fact. Plus, when the users are allowed to get to the root of the things like- why the things are looking the way, or which factors bringing such conclusion, the drill downs and acknowledgments cultivate and strengthen the trust in the product.

When the IoT app delivers all the information in a simplified way and is rendering the best user experience, the users will have faith and trust in the product.

How it can be achieved?

We have read why user experience is a non-negotiable factor for the IoT apps. The next question it pops-up is how the user experience designers can handle the ball game of UX and tackle the challenges come up with engineering UX in the IoT applications.

There are some core UX designer principles which must be followed during IoT app development to let the app offer remarkable user experience and address the challenges that come in between.

Keeping the UI simple and conventions familiar, ensuring cross-team coordination, maintaining security at the forefront, focusing on the designing from the user’s perspective, and then testing and iterating the app are the important factors that enable developers painlessly weave the fabric of user experience in the IoT applications.

Conclusion

Internet of things- the connected technology that’s presently in a toddler stage is spanning and maturing with continuous development in the diverse industry verticals. With its growing importance, the compelling user experience has become indispensable for the IoT apps to get ahead of the pack and standing on the top of the user’s mind.

As IoT ecosystem comprises the plethora of digital devices, sensors, and the objects, which makes it mandatory to meet the UX need in every aspect. Enhancing the brand experience, favoring quality over quantity, reduced complexity, improved usability, and trust building are the by products which come by making the user experience the core of the IoT app.

It’s a beginning and many more reasons will come up that convince the developers to lay the foundation of IoT app on the top of the user experience. Till then, let’s wait and watch how the developers deal with it.

Ketan Chavda

With in-depth knowledge in International Business Management and Information Technology, he can effectively craft business enhancement strategies and can skillfully untangle technical complexities. This has laid the path for him as the Co-Founder and MD of Prismetric . Writing about the new age technology and sharing his thoughts on the continuously evolving business trends keep him content.