With each passing day things are turning out to be smarter. IoT or internet of technology is the fastest growing technology in today's world. Now this technology is being expanded towards the websites with creative WordPress themes. Internet of Things is a technology where all the electronic devices are powered with some chip so as to get them over internet. These devices are able to transfer the data over network without the involvement of any human. Almost all the tech companies are accepting these and have expanded their services and products over this fastest growing technology. But when we take the things over a digital interface, the UX and UI does face certain problems. Let's look at those.
Connectivity issues
You should understand that IOT is just a technology which makes the electronic things get connected over network. Most of the devices work today over Wi-Fi or cable-less. The user needs to understand that we may accept network connectivity issues in our laptops or Smartphones but connectivity issues over IOT devices such as thermostats, lights, ac etc are not tolerable. As a user we can tolerate a slow loading website but for an IOT powered tube light we need a lightning fast response. The generation today is not ready to accept even a slightest of delay. Connectivity issues do impact significantly on the overall IOT experience.
The problem with multiple interfaces
The idea of IOT had hit the market long time back but it is still a developing technology for the consumer market. IOT devices still face a lot of glitches and obstacles. One major problem which is faced by this industry is the team work. Yes! You can see a lot of devices available over the market but all these devices fail to connect each other. They may be smart individually but the technology is useless as long as these devices don't work as a team. The thumb rule is that if you have three different devices such as fitness tracker, a thermostat and a smart car, you just cannot control them from one single application. You have to control them from three different interfaces or apps. You cannot control your thermostat from your fitness tracker app or you cannot give command to your smart car from the thermostat. So, this proves to be hindrance in the overall user experience. In fact, this seriously hampers the usability and the actual purpose of having smart devices is defeated.
What about usability?
Theoretically, IoT was designed to make the loves of people more comfortable and improve the standard of living. But the fact is that IOT is still growing and struggling to get its place in the market. the scenario is just like the early web days, when the websites seem to lack the usability at first sight.
As beginner to this technology all the newbies have to memorize and learn the new icons, gestures and get acquainted to the interfaces. Frankly speaking, in the present day the IOT technology is pretty much complicated. For example, if you want to change the temperature of your thermostat or swutch off the fan, which is just a single step work in the real world while it takes a couple of more steps tom perform it using a smart device.
Infact, after conducting a quick heuristic evaluation of the all the devices powered by IOT we won't get the results as expected. And these simple these results are not liked by the humans. As UX designer, you need to research over the experience of the end users and then optimize these websites accordingly just like the we used the creative WordPress themes to improve the UX .
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