Connected home devices that work together as a team

Confidential Client
Global Tech Corp.
December 2019

Right now, today’s connected devices operate mostly independently from each other. As such, their capabilities and the interactions they facilitate with users are relatively limited. Even getting them to connect to each other can often be a pain. 

Tasked with exploring the deeper question of what might be possible if these individually ‘dumb’ devices actually worked together, Humanistic built off of Bill Buxton’s ideas on Ubiety; collections of devices that communicate with each other in the background to sense and anticipate human user’s needs.

A telescope icon
Forward Research
A computer window with a logic diagram
System Design
A stylized human head icon wearing a vr headset with a curved display in front of them
New Tech Design
An illustration of a tired woman controlling her room with hand gestures and technologies around the space are lit up, connected by lines1
Approach

Our designers and researchers led an exploration into how our technology partner might leverage their extensive portfolio of smart, connected devices to enable both practical ubiquitous computing and next generation multimodal interaction. Such a web of compatible connected devices could be utilized to enable intelligent personalized user experiences anywhere, any time, even when constrained by relatively little computing power. 

Humanistic conducted a broad ethnographic study of people from various economic backgrounds, walks of life, and lifestyles in order to construct models of how they built connected device ecosystems around their lives.

Combined with these insights, our team also performed an extensive horizon scan of existing and emergent IoT products and platforms, following with a foresight study to gather and analyze those signals, trends, and forces shaping the ubiquitous computing landscape - not to mention the changing nature of relationships, home and work.

an illustration of a woman controlling a room with a smart watch
an illustration of a blind man interacting with a room with a smart ring
an illustration of a blind man interacting with a coffee maker with a smart ring
a mockup of the foresight book
a mockup of the foresight book open to an insight and signals page
a redacted sketch from the guideline
a redacted sketch from the guideline
a redacted page from the guideline
a photo of the guideline open to a devices page on a marble countertop
a photo of the guideline open to an interaction page on a marble countertop
a photo of the guideline on a marble countertop
No items found.
Outcome

Our team took an exhaustive look at the market landscape, revealing a wealth of opportunities for ambient and ubiquitous computing usages of smart, connected devices. The market scan concluded with a selection of detailed speculative future scenarios, and provided our client with numerous IP (patentable) concepts and future product ideas to explore

Beyond the foresight, our team developed a comprehensive treatise on how to architect a device ecosystem which would enable humans to interact with teams of connected devices multi-modally, and seamlessly. The guideline included an entirely new interaction model which would guide intelligent device behaviors, and enable natural, ambient, and spatialized user experiences with users. 

More Solutions
More work
A white right pointing arrow
More work
A black right pointing arrow