Tinker Tayler Solder Pi – UX Scotland 2016

T I N K E R TAY L E R SOLDER

PI

@stuarttayler1


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This talk is about a side-project, rather than a big commercial project. But I think there are some useful learnings.


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That’s me. I work for cxpartners as a user experience consultant (which explains thepost-its).


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A soldering iron…


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And a Raspberry Pi.

1. PROJECT 2. PROCESS 3. IoT & SERVICE DESIGN


THE USER NEED

Even though this was a side project, I still started with a user need.

THE (NICHE) USER NEED

When my son was born,my wife was at home more and wanted music around the flat.

We bought a small Bluetooth speaker.

PLAYING MUSIC

MY WIFE:1. Make sure speaker is on2. Click button on speaker to make it discoverable3. Go to home screen 4. Find and open Settings5. Click on Bluetooth6. Click on ‘Bose Mini Soundlink’ in ‘My Devices’7. Wait for Bluetooth to pair8. Open Spotify9. Find some music10. Play music

However, my wife needed to perform a complex sequence of interactions with the speaker’s buttons and the phone’s settings to connect over Bluetooth.

OPPORTUNITY

AN EASY WAY TO SEND MUSIC TO MY FAMILY

OPPORTUNITY

A ‘FRICTIONLESS’ WAY TO PLAY MUSIC AT HOME

MUSIC MAIL

See this video at: https://vimeo.com/132147559

https://vimeo.com/132147559

HOW IT WORKS

RASPBERRY PI

At the core of the device is a Raspberry Pi — a credit-card sized computer.

HOW IT WORKS


DURRELL BISHOP – MARBLE ANSWER MACHINE

Design inspiration.

My initial idea.

Sketches for simplifying the device.

BUILDING THE PROTOTYPE

The first big step was getting a simple buttonto work.

The code was writtenin Javascript using Node.js.

THE VALUE OF PROTOTYPING

At this point, it would be good to talk a little aboutthe nature of prototyping and why we do it.

GILL WILDMAN & NICK DURRANT

1. BACKTALK2. FEEDBACK3. TANGIBLE STRATEGY

Gill Wildman and Nick Durrant describe three forms of value obtained through prototyping.

GILL WILDMAN & NICK DURRANT

1. BACKTALK 2. FEEDBACK 3. TANGIBLE STRATEGY

I’m interested in the first one. It’s where you’re building in order to learn.

DESIGN DECISIONS BECOME CLEARER.

THINGS GET RESOLVED IN REAL TIME.

Huarache Lights by Hot Chip

The Salmon Dance by The Chemical Brothers

Mountains by Prince

Monkey Man by The Maytals

Hold On! I’m A Comin’ by Sam & Dave

Rock the Casbah by The Clash

For example, when you add new tracks to a Spotify playlist they are added at the end.

Huarache Lights by Hot Chip

The Salmon Dance by The Chemical Brothers

Mountains by Prince

Monkey Man by The Maytals

Hold On! I’m A Comin’ by Sam & Dave

Rock the Casbah by The Clash

But I had to make a decision – should it be chronological or reverse chronological (like Instagram)?

NOTIFICATIONS

Another example. If multiple new tracks are added, do the lights go out as soon as the first new track is played? or after they have all been played?

BUILD TO LEARN

These are design decisions that aren’t easy to foresee by just thinking about the problem. But when you’re making a prototype, they become patently obvious.

Carrying on with the process… The working device before building a housing.

Designing the housingin SketchUp.

Exploding the model onto a 2D plane so that it could be sent to get laser cut.

Building the buttons by glueing layers of plywood.

The first layer inside the box – the Raspberry Pi.

The proto-board with components soldered to it.

The amplifier and speakers.

The finished box.

Once I got the device playing music, it occurred to me that it would be interesting if I could receive some feedback at work, showing me what was playing. I built the email notification and website, again using Node.js.

PROTOTYPE RESEARCH

When the device was ready, I took it home so that my family could start using it.

I left a stack of post-its ready for my wife to take notes about what she did and didn’t like. Unfortunately child care got in the way of taking notes.

The first day I left the box at home and went to work was our wedding anniversary. I sent our first-dance song. When I got the email saying she was playing it, there was a strong emotive feeling of being connected.

Whenever I received an email, I knew that my wife or son had started to interact with the device. I could look on the website too to see what was happening. It also meant I knew when it wasn’t being used, so I could then explore why:

2 USERS

HARRIET• Enjoys someone else choosing music.• Radio does a similar job, but this is more tailored.• Eliminates faffing.• It’s nice to say ”new music from daddy”.• Mental model understood.• Wants to delete some songs.

FERGUS• Plays music independently.• Changes mood.• Too short to see light!• Confused by button functions…

PLAYS MUSIC PLAYS MUSIC

There was some confusion between the two buttons – although they had different functions, they bothplayed music.

FIXES AND UPDATES

Through the realtime updates, I discovered and fixed a number of bugs. I also made some bigger updates, a few of which I’d like to talk about.

TRACK CONTROL

The blue wheel that controls tracks was too sensitive — it skipped through multiple tracks unless you were careful enough to move it in small increments. Once I discovered this, I updated the code so that no matter how much you moved the wheel it would only skip one track, making it much more usable.

PAUSE LAG

The lag that happened when pressing pause meant you would end up pressing it twice. I hacked it by cutting the volume as soon as the button was pressed to make it feel more responsive.

CONTROL THE CODE TO CONTROL THE INTERACTIONS

This wasn’t bug-fixing. It was changing the behaviour of the device, the ‘feel’ of it. But there were no hardware changes, it was achieved just by updating the code. The behaviour was crafted by being in control of the code.

CHANGES OVER TIME

A particularly interesting thing that I observed was how behaviours change over time.

At the beginning changing tracks was a novelty, but this wore off.

EARLIER • Wanted to find a specific song.

LATER • Wanted tracks to be shuffled.

EVEN LATER • Linear playing is ok, if regularly updated

Behaviours and needs changed over time.

NEXT STEPS

A toy my son has. It has a button you press to start playing a song. You press the same button to play a new song. A very simple interaction.

PAUSE / OFF

VOLUME

Short press: PLAY / PLAY NEW / SKIP NEXT

Long press SHUFFLE

This is how I thought I might update the device, using that same interaction.

HARD TO

UPDATE

TO

UPDATE

EASY-ISH

Before redesigning the housing, I thought it might be a good idea to update a few things first.

I added a shuffle mode. It works really well - you get to hear older songs. However there is no indication of state.

You need some visibility of whether shuffle is on or off.

UPDATE CODE TO HELP YOU MAKE HARDWARE DECISIONS

I wouldn’t have learned about the hardware changes needed, without updating the software first.


In my last job, I worked on the website for Turkcell (Turkey’s leading mobile operator).

I also worked on a Connected Home project for them.

ISTANBUL, 2013.

When we speaker to customers, they didn’t care about the ‘tech’ of connected homes. Butthey were interested in looking after their family and property.

So the service we created was centred around a security system that linked all the sensors together.

We also created a bunch of preset ‘rules’ that linked the devices. These were grouped under categories like ‘keep my environment safe’ or ‘keep things secure’. It was the service, rather than the devices that provided most of the value.

The same is true for Music Mail. The emotional connection created isn’t really due to the physical device, it’s a result of the messaging and feedback service behind it.

THE SERVICE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

These examples showed that the Internet of Things isn’t about the things, it’s about the underlying service.

Paul Weichselbaum Havard Business Review

“Our interaction with devices is profoundly changing – they are becoming more like interconnected services than products.”

I saw this same idea expressed in other places.

It’s most clearly articulated in this book.

SERVICE AVATARS

In it, Mike Kuniavsky introduces the idea of Service Avatars.

MIKE KUNIAVSKY:

“When information produces most of the value for users, the hardware and software […] takes a secondary role.

The tool becomes an avatar of the service.”

The classic example of a Service Avatar he gives is an iPod with iTunes as the service behind it.

Another, more extreme, example is Amazon’s Dash Button. It’s the thinnest slice of their service that you can probably imagine.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM SERVICE DESIGN?

So if Service Design and IoT are related, what can we learn?

CONSIDER HOW THE SERVICE CAN CREATE VALUE

The first thing is simply considering the service.

TOM ARMITAGE:

“What are the things that are only possible when the service, and the object, and the data, and the network are joined together?”

Tom Armitage (who has also written about Service Avatars) poses an excellent question.

LISTEN ALONG

So what would I change about Music Mail in order to focus on the service? A progress bar? A listen along button to feel more connected to my family.

A physical ‘like’ button? The ability to send a voice message back?

A physical ‘like’ button? The ability to send a voice message back?

This reminds me of…

The ability to send a voice message to my family?

I’d like to apply this to another project I’ve been working on. An internet-connected piggy bank.

This is how the idea would work: A parent and child would go and open a children's savings account.

CHILD SAVINGS ACCOUNT 19122010

CHILD SAVINGS ACCOUNT 19122010

This account essentially lives in the cloud. It’s intangible. The pig provides an interface with the account. It looks like a Service Avatar!

The pig stays in the child’s bedroom.

Parents can then send pocket money to children using a dedicated service.

When they do, the pigs ears spin around. See this video at: https://vimeo.com/170875909

This acts as a notification.

You earned 50p!

When the child shakes the pig, the pig says how much money has been earned and how much their savings are worth.

Happy Birthday! love Granny

But what’s only possible when the service, object, data, and the network are joined? Maybe the child could exchange messages with Grandparents.

Thank you Granny!

But what’s only possible when the service, object, data, and the network are joined? Maybe the child could exchange messages with Grandparents.

How much have I saved this month?

Maybe the child can speak to the pig and ask it questions?

How much more do I need to save for a remote controlled car?

Maybe the child can speak to the pig and ask it questions?

IT’S ABOUT TIME

The second thing we can learn from Service Design is the importance oftime-based interactions.

This is highlighted in Lucy Kimbell’s book.

LUCY KIMBELL:

“SERVICE RESTS ON THE IDEA OF VALUE-IN-USE OVER TIME, NOT VALUE-IN-EXCHANGE IN A TRANSACTION”

LUCY KIMBELL:

“SERVICE RESTS ON THE IDEA OF VALUE-IN-USE OVER TIME, NOT VALUE-IN-EXCHANGE IN A TRANSACTION”

Time is also discussed in a book by my old bosses.

POLAINE, REASON & LØVLIE:

“FOR SERVICE DESIGNERS, THE OBJECTS OF DESIGN ARE EXPERIENCES OVER TIME.”

Here, they are discussing the difference between Service and UX design.

HOW DO YOU ENSURE PEOPLE WILL GET VALUE-IN-USE OVER TIME?

So how do you designfor time?

EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPING

I believe one answer isby using Experience Prototyping.

MAYPOLE PROJECT

This was a project by Ideo and Nokia. They wanted to explore picture messaging (back in the 90s). The prototype required a power pack and transceiver unit that children had to carry around in a backpack, yet the experience was so compelling that they forgot about that inconvenience.

Marion Buchenau, Jane Fulton Suri

By the term “Experience Prototype” we mean to emphasize the experiential aspect of whatever representations are needed to successfully (re)liveor convey an experience with a product, spaceor system.

MUSIC MAIL

Music Mail could be considered an experience prototype.

CAN WE TURN THIS INTO AN EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPE?

What about the pig? At the moment I’ve really just been prototyping the interfaces and interactions - the web UI, the notification mechanism, interactions with the device. HOWEVER, it’s not a prototype of the actual experience of saving real money or even spending money. For that you’d need to link the pig to an real account.

PRETENDACCOUNT

(Database)

API

The way I built the pig was to build a fake bank account using a database. So that the pig could ‘speak’ to that fake account, I created an API.

A few weeks ago I got a Mondo card. The great thing about it is it has an API of it’s own. This meant I could link my API to it’s API. Suddenly the pig is linked to a real account!

A few weeks ago I got a Mondo card. The great thing about it is it has an API of it’s own. This meant I could link my API to it’s API. Suddenly the pig is linked to a real account!

RESEARCHING TIME-BASED EXPERIENCES

So that’s prototyping time-based experiences, what about researching them?

DIARY STUDIES

Traditionally, diary studies are used for longitudinal studies. At cxpartners,we use an app calledNative Eye. However, diary studies usually rely on recall.

PREDICTIONACTUAL

EXPERIENCE RECALL

IN-THE-MOMENT RESEARCH

Studies have shown how emotions about an experience vary depending on when you speak to them about it. Humans have exceptionally weak skills on predicting feelings about future experiences. Other studies talk about the ‘rosy retrospection effect’. As my colleague James Lang says, you need to get as close to the ‘moment-of-truth’ – the actual experience – as possible.

When I was getting feedback from Music Mail and then following up with SMS, I was doing ‘in-the-moment’ research. This actually has a name: ‘Experience Sampling’. It’s the technique Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi used when doing research for ‘Flow’, except he used a pager.

EXPERIENCE SAMPLING

When I was getting feedback from Music Mail and then following up with SMS, I was doing ‘in-the-moment’ research. This actually has a name: ‘Experience Sampling’. It’s the technique Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi used when doing research for ‘Flow’, except he used a pager.

But what about the piggy bank? If This Then That is a service that allows you to connect other services together.

I can use IFTTT to connect my API with Slack so that I can record events, like a new pocket money donation. This then allows you to do experience sampling, by following up with a text, call, etc.

DESIGN IN FEEDBACK SO YOU CAN SAMPLE EXPERIENCES CLOSER TO THE ‘MOMENTS OF TRUTH’

APIs are really helpful for doing this kind of research. It’s worth understanding how they work.

THINGS I’VE LEARNT:

In conclusion…

BUILD TO LEARN

CONTROL INTERACTIONS THROUGH CODE

CONSIDER HOW THE SERVICE CAN ADD VALUE

USE EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPING TO HELP YOU CREATE VALUE-IN-USE OVER TIME

DESIGN IN FEEDBACK TO CAPTURE MOMENTS OF TRUTH

DESIGN PROTOTYPES FOR ITERATIONS AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

THANKS! FEEDBACK WELCOME: [email protected] @stuarttayler1