the changing nature of things: the present and future of connected products
TRANSCRIPT
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
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.
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
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.
Capital required increases exponentially. • 1 good prototype: £5K • 200 commercial products: £60K
Making things is easy & cheap.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 [email protected] designswarm.com @iotwatch