The changing nature of things The present and a future for connected products

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino designswarm.com @iotwatch

First UK distributor of the Arduino in the UK (2007-2010)

Product & interaction designer

Consultant & Founder Good Night Lamp (2010-now)

About me

Some clients

London Internet of Things Meetup

Started in 2011 we now have 5.2K members. Monthly meetups with 3 speakers each & 2 showcase events a year iot.london

What I want you to remember

We have to stop thinking of hardware as software we can kick. We should and can offer a better business environment for startups to thrive sustainably. We have to think about what we really want from our future.

This is still early days

The internet of things is about the idea of ubiquitous connectivity & digital services connected to real world events. So we went ahead and tried to connect everything. We’ve ended up with a mixed bag.

What is or isn’t #iot?.

Home-made internet of things pie

Remote care & security  

Wearables  

Insight into the invisible  

“Stick the internet on it”  

Rebranded M2M & industrial automation

services

Platforms, tools, incubators Inventions  

Remote care & security

Things that raise local awareness

Air Quality Air Quality Radiation level

Things that help us see the invisible

Manufacturing process

Stick the internet on it

Invention

Little Printer Narrative Nabaztag

Things that help us make other things: tools

Things that help companies understand us better

What kind of message does this send out?

Making things is easy & cheap. Technology just works You will find a market easily for what you’re building. Access to capital is just around the corner.

What kind of message does this send out?

Making things is easy & cheap.

Making 1 of something is easy and cheap.

Making things is easy & cheap.

The design can change radically.

Making things is easy & cheap.

Space requirements grow exponentially

Making things is easy & cheap.

Capital required increases exponentially. •  1 good prototype: £5K •  200 commercial products: £60K

Making things is easy & cheap.

What kind of message does this send out?

Making things is easy & cheap. Technology just works

It just doesn’t.

Deploying into the real world is complicated especially when a real user is involved. You don’t have a second chance to make a first impression.

Hardware should be hard.

Using up the earth’s resources to make a potentially frivolous product with no chance to be useful to its users should be as difficult as possible. The manufacturing & design process is not trivial.

Unlike what we would like to think.

What kind of message does this send out?

Making things is easy & cheap. Technology just works You will find a market easily for what you’re building.

It might take years or not happen at all.

What kind of message does this send out?

Making things is easy & cheap. Technology just works You will find a market easily for what you’re building. Access to capital is just around the corner.

Depends where you are.

There are no hardware-only investment funds in UK & Europe. Incubators & accelerators are often ways to educate investors. Foundry (Fitbit / Makerbot) don’t invest in early stage startups anymore.

What kind of world does it describe?

Ubiquitous technology is good. Seamless interactions never fail. People want to design and tweak. Data is important.

When humans are involved, things always get complicated.

The politics of fear.

Takes plenty of time to build new behaviours

But we live in a world of broken relationships with objects

Access to cheap credit, mass production in Asia & mostly free internet services has lowered consumer expectations around the price of every day objects. Connected everyday objects will suffer from this.

Because we don’t want to pay for it anyway

Because we don’t care what happens to it

Expect second hand computers to be followed by second hand objects which are still collecting “dead data”. Expect Dash buttons on Ebay that people forget to disconnect from their Amazon account.

People solving problems we don’t think we have

While creating other problems

Plenty of latent relationships

Design better, sooner before it ends up being waste.

Or shackles.

Or more shackles.

Product ownership may be dead.

Farmers don’t really own their tractors. We don’t really own our phones, cars or homes or furniture.

But we still have to live with things.

We love for our homes to be beautiful. We want our objects to complete our human experience. We want our objects to remind us of the past. We want our objects to reflect who we are.

Technologists & designers working hand in hand.

Rethink the MVP. User-centered design & lo-fi prototyping. Crowdfunding won’t be necessary. New collaborations & new ways of seeing IP.

Moving away from externalising R&D.

And recombine what is already there.

Remember!

Hardware is not software we can kick. We can offer a better business environment for startups to thrive sustainably. But we have to know what we really want from our future.

Good luck Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino alex@designswarm.com designswarm.com @iotwatch