Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design

by Mike Kuniavsky

The world of smart shoes, appliances, and phones is already here, but the practice of user experience (UX) design for ubiquitous computing is still relatively new. Design companies like IDEO and frogdesign are regularly asked to design products that unify software interaction, device design and service design -- which are all the key components of ubiquitous computing UX -- and practicing designers need a way to tackle practical challenges of design. Theory is not enough for them -- luckily the industry is now mature enough to have tried and tested best practices and case studies from the field. Smart Things presents a problem-solving approach to addressing designers' needs and concentrates on process, rather than technological detail, to keep from being quickly outdated. It pays close attention to the capabilities and limitations of the medium in question and discusses the tradeoffs and challenges of design in a commercial environment. Divided into two sections, frameworks and techniques, the book discusses broad design methods and case studies that reflect key aspects of these approaches. The book then presents a set of techniques highly valuable to a practicing designer. It is intentionally not a comprehensive tutorial of user-centered design'as that is covered in many other books'but it is a handful of techniques useful when designing ubiquitous computing user experiences. In short, Smart Things gives its readers both the "why" of this kind of design and the "how," in well-defined chunks.

Genres: Design, Business, Technology, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2010

About the author

Mike Kuniavsky is the founder of ThingM, a ubiquitous computing design and development company. He also cofounded Adaptive Path, a leading internet consultancy, and cofounded Wired Digital UX for Wired Magazine‘s online division, where he served as the interaction designer of the award-winning search engine, HotBot. He is also the author of Observing the User Experience, and the new book Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing UX Design, both available from Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Reviews

[Mikal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend Smart Things for Product Managers, UX researchers/designers and business leaders in consumer technology fields (it focuses on consumer experiences almost to the exclusion of workplace and business to business products and services).

Primarily theoretical book it aggregates related research in the field and makes it a bit more approachable for everyday practitioners. From a double diamond point of view (Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver) this book contributes to the Discovery and to some extent the definition stages.

While the concepts themselves are simple, its a bit too obtusely written for most people to finish. In addition, the examples chosen as standalone are extremely niche and they all seem to have missed their mark in the marketplace. While I don't think every example needs to be a marketplace success, the examples given don't aide readers in scoping down the potential of ubiquitous computing to the most valuable elements.

Some things you'll find valuable as a reader:
- frameworks and rules of thumb to consider the possibilities of the 'smart thing' you are developing
- context to think about the philosophy of the product or service you are developing
- ways of viewing smart things as nodes in a broader service (or as a service avatar)
- concepts for considering the different uses of form factors in the context of a broader service (specifically considering web vs. iPad vs. mobile implementations - chapter 9)

On the whole- this book creates a number of categories of 'smart things' with some rules of thumb on how to evaluate each category and a broader set of principles that all categories share. I recommend reading the book and revisiting a period of time later- and building your own models that you and your team can use for discovering and defining whats next in your industry or product. It also could be a value 'book club' book for members of your team to understand the broader context in which your product or service will live.

[Laura Maliqi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book gives a comprehensive overview of UbiComp, UX and real world examples. Great read!!

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize that this was going to be such a textbook/primer on ubicomp. The case studies of specific projects (roughly every other chapter) were great, but it turns out that I was pretty familiar with the materials in the other "primer" chapters, so they were a slog. Someone who was new to the field would undoubtedly get more out of it.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. I wish I had been able to make it to the book club to discuss with people. I am unclear on how this book was intended to be consumed -- as a how-to? As a philosophical or academic treatise? Would have been interesting to see how other people felt about it. Well written but something didn't quite click for me.

[Gerrit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be required reading for every ubicomp researcher.

[Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a highly influential book for me. Kuniavsky is perhaps one of the leading people in the technology+design space.

[Delhi Irc]

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