Are You Prepared to Create Content for the
Internet of Things?
@Gilbane
#gilbane
Chris Carter
@CyWhisp
THE DOCUMENT
24-50 BILLION
We are already saturated, overloaded, with content. We keep hearing that the Internet of Things is right around the corner. We are already saturated, overloaded, with content. We keep hearing that the Internet of Things is right around the corner. And depending on whose research you listen to, by 2020 there will be anywhere from 24 to 50 billion connected devices in the world. Granted, most of these devices will just be sensing and collecDng data and talking to other devices. But even if only a small percentage of those newly-‐connected devices has a user interface, that is sDll a few billion new places to deliver content.
BIG CONTENT 24-50 BILLION
Forget Big Data, we’re entering Big Content. But the Internet of Things isn’t like the content delivery systems you already know. It isn’t about content. It’s not about interface. It’s about hidden computaDon and value-‐added funcDonality.
So where will we see all of this content in the near future? What will have a user interface? The same devices that always did. None of them are going away. Computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones.
Devices we know already, but are showing disrupDve changes in their interface or content. The biggest market of this kind is televisions. Using a TV to watch broadcast programming is so last decade. And when I say broadcast television, I mean cable, satellite, antenna. Over half of smart TV owners use their TVs to watch streaming internet shows or to surf the web as much as they watch broadcast television shows. We’ve passed the Dpping point. Television sets are no longer primarily for television.
Devices that never had connecDvity or such interface before. A watch used to be a watch. Appliances are now being connected, and many have a user interface for the first Dme. Automobiles are shiRing from mechanical devices that have digital features, to digital devices that have mechanical features. A recent consumer focus group by KPMG found, when it comes to building connected cars, car buyers trust tech companies more than car manufactures.
And lastly, brand new devices. Heads-‐Up-‐Devices are geWng a lot of aXenDon now. From Google Glass to its compeDtors. These probably won’t truly be market ready for up to 2 years, but many companies large and small are already creaDng content or content systems for these. And eventually, connected clothing. E-‐fabrics can already be made out of copper threads that can store up to possibly a terabyte of data in one garment. And one team recently developed nickel and carbon coated yarns that turn fabric into a working baXery. A few labs around the world are already working on e-‐fabrics that have digital UI built into it.
We are interacDng with more devices, and there is a shiR in the types of user interface that are becoming a regular part of our lives.
Human Interaction
The way we interface with devices is less mechanical control, and more human-‐like interacDon. Machines have knobs and buXons and keyboards and mice. But now it’s more “Hey you, do that!” People are starDng to think of their devices more like people than machines. We don’t input, we interact. We expect a reacDon. We don’t talk at them, we converse with them. We anthropomorphize or devices. When we configure a new device, we’re told “Now give this device a name”. Studies show that we are more willing to interact with a device when it has a face or facial features.
We want to have interfaces or inputs that are more natural. Less machine-‐like. HandwriDng is more natural than typing. Google added handwriDng to Google Translate because it’s easier than input methods for many eastern languages, like Chinese. Recently Google expanded handwriDng to emails in Gmail. And Google plans to keep extending this technology into more of their products.
Screens are geWng smaller. Again, nothing is disappearing, but we now use smaller screens to do much of what large screens used to be good enough for. It’s driven by a shiR to mobile compuDng, but the IoT requires very small things to be connected too. There’s a limit. Phone screens are not always easy to operate. But most smartwatches coming out now have touch screens. That’s just silly. We need alternaDves to screens.
HapDcs, or touch interface, hasn’t been around for that long, but many touch interfaces are already being replaced by kinesics, or gesture. First there was Kinect, but it the quality was low. Then LeapMoDon came out and it was 200 Dmes more accurate. Myo armbands read muscles in your wrist to determine what the hand and fingers are doing. And WiSee uses WiFi that you already have in your home as radar to read the specific body movements of anyone in the house, wherever they are. There is sDll a lot of experimentaDon with the best ways to incorporate gesture.
Siri?
Привет
Vocalics, or voice interface, is perhaps going to see the most growth in the next few years. Advances in natural language processing brought us Siri and Google Now, but those are geWng mixed reviews. Although Google Now just last month updated from voice commands to “conversaDonal mode” commands, which use more natural Turn-‐Taking and Pre-‐Sequencing theories. The research is sDll going, and it will get beXer. Mostly because people really want voice interface. We just don’t yet know where. Text-‐to-‐voice and voice-‐to-‐text conversion technologies have varying levels of quality. Especially in languages other than English.
For now, we sDll think of most content as a 2-‐dimensional medium. But some flat interfaces will gradually be replaced with Augmented Reality and even Virtual Reality. 17% of smartphone owners already use some form of AR on their phone. And 50% more said they don’t but would like to. AR is already used in so many places, from gaming to simulators. And VR is currently being used in to treat PTSD, drug addicDon, phobias, for physical therapy, amputees, and burn vicDms.
Immersive VR like the Oculus RiR is geWng a lot of media aXenDon. AdverDsements have been placed in the online worlds of games for years already. And the inventor of Second Life, Philip Rosedale, is developing and planning to launch a second Virtual Life environment for people using VR interface. That’s a whole new universe that will need content.
And then there’s virtual reDnal display. It isn’t exactly virtual reality, it projects photons directly onto your eye to make you see things that aren’t actually there. The company Avegant currently has prototypes that are glasses, and those have a virtual reality effect. But the same technology could be used to project from a device that you aren’t wearing. It could make you see holograms or images floaDng in air in front of you. But only you can see them. Rumors are the Samsung and even Amazon are working on smartphones that do just that.
More Control
Another major shiR is in our relaDonship with our technology. People used to use technology. Now, devices are not something we occasionally reach for. They are integrated into our lifestyles. Our day and our technology are inseparable. So users want more control. We’re not talking about their technology, we’re talking about their life. Okay, this picture is fake. But I do have two friends in San Francisco, and aRer the preacher announced them married, they ceremoniously, up at the altar, changed their Facebook status to “Married”.
It is already very common to allow users to customize many parts of device displays. And users want even more ability to control the interface. We all have to make so many decisions about all of the many configuraDons and permissions for all of our devices and all of our apps and programs. But we do it, because we want everything ‘our’ way. Design also has become so customizable. NoDce, I am not saying responsive. This isn’t about responsive design or even adapDve design. We are now entering the age of User Design. The exact same device can manage the exact same content differently for each user. Users want to manually choose the way their devices look. They want to choose how pages look. To choose which content they receive, and what size, color, font, contrast, language, and even reading level that content appears to them. And, they want to be able to change their minds, at any Dme.
But more important than interface, users want control over the content. They already forward and post and share your content. SomeDmes they manipulate that picture before they share it. They already think they control your content. Users want any content from anywhere. The featurizaDon of machine translaDon online became fairly standard only two years ago. But it is already moving towards no-‐click automaDon. In many places, users have the power to choose which content to receive at all. Apps and plug-‐ins like Rather let users delete, or replace content that they don’t want to see. Facebook directly asks people in their news feed if they want to “Hide this content, or content like it”. Control. Users are overwhelmed with Big Content, and they just want to reduce the flood.
13%
According to a 2013 study by Janrain, 13% of respondents said that they would give up sex for a month, if they could get personalized content on the web sites they visit most oRen. They really want it! The content, that is. And in a separate survey, by the Custom Content Council, 61% of respondents are “much more likely to buy” from a company whose online content is customizable. The promise of Big Data and the Internet of Things is the ability to beXer personalize content for individuals.
So you keep sending them all this content. But consumers are Dred of just listening. Social media took us from distribuDon to conversaDon. And now consumers want control over the conversaDon. Let them talk back. Don’t start a conversaDon, create a conversaDon place. Empower them to talk to you, or to each other. Let them upload content of their own. Text, tweets, status updates, voice, short videos, whatever. But how would users talk back to these products? Or why would they? According to Edison Research, the number one reason consumers follow brands on social media is “sales/discounts/coupons”. Well that makes sense. But the number two reason was to discuss the brand with other consumers. And to moDvate the consumer to interact with your product, you can use extrinsic rewards, gamificaDon, behavioral confirmaDon, or just pure entertainment. And when they talk, keep the conversaDon going. People use social media because hominids have depended on social structure for 50 million years. Modern humans need confirmaDon, validaDon, social status. Psychologist Roy Baumeister wrote that social sharing is a masochism used as escape from self. In other words, the self-‐awareness of individualism creates a pressure from knowing you are being judged, or – even worse -‐ ignored. That’s why it’s so important in social media to reply when consumers reach out. Find ways to validate their conversaDon.
Despite all of the hype, there are some obstacles prevenDng the internet of things from taking over our reality tomorrow. And it’s going to get a liXle messy. Change is slow. The first connected refrigerator was from V-‐Synch Technology and it hit the market in 1998. 15 years ago. Why doesn’t everyone have one by now? Technical issues also need to be solved, such as baXery power, recharging methods, and interoperability standards. Security and privacy concerns. A third of global consumers think data mining is helpful, but another third think it is too invasive. And fear. It takes Dme for the public to become comfortable with new technology. When Guglielmo Marconi arrived in England in 1896 to show off his new invenDon, the radio, officials smashed it to bits afraid it would lead to chaos and revoluDon.
Basically, when designing content for the Internet of Things, you are designing content for a much larger variety of devices, with a larger variety of user experiences, and using a larger variety of methods of interface. Content development overall is diversifying. For each content creator, or content distributor, relevance becomes more important. And not just relevance of the content to the target audience. Relevance per individual, not group. ExperienDal relevance. Relevance to the five senses. What will be the guiding light when navigaDng the much more diversified content development future? Giving the end-‐user as much control as possible over their content experience. And making that experience feel as natural and as human as you can. We’ve already started using these principles. But we can go much further. And with each new advance in technology is a new relaDonship with technology, and also new applicaDons of these principles to the content experience.
Thank you Thank you
Chris Carter
@CyWhisp
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