AIoT Usage Viewpoint: Difference between revisions

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==  Usage Viewpoint ==
==  UX Viewpoint ==
The goal of the usage viewpoint is to provide a holistic view of how the product will be used. This can include, for example, a refined AIoT Solution Sketch, User Journeys, as well as mockups / wireframes.
The goal of the UX (User Experience) viewpoint is to provide a holistic view of how the product or solution will be used by the user and other stakeholders. Good UX practice usually includes extensive product validation, including usability testing, user feedback, pilot user tests, and so on. A good starting point are usually customer surveys or interviews. In the case of an AIoT-enabled product or solution it can make sense to also include site surveys to better understand the environment of the physical products or assets.
 
In order to ensure realistic and consistent use cases across the design, a set of personas should be defined, representing the typical users of the product or solution. Revisiting the User Journey from the initial business design helps clarifying many details. Finally, HMI (Human-Machine Interaction) design, early prototypes and wire frames are also essential elements of the UX viewpoint.
 
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Revision as of 21:35, 8 July 2021

Business ViewpointUsage ViewpointData/Functional ViewpointImplementation ViewpointProduct ViewpointProduct ArchitectureAIoT Usage Viewpoint


UX Viewpoint

The goal of the UX (User Experience) viewpoint is to provide a holistic view of how the product or solution will be used by the user and other stakeholders. Good UX practice usually includes extensive product validation, including usability testing, user feedback, pilot user tests, and so on. A good starting point are usually customer surveys or interviews. In the case of an AIoT-enabled product or solution it can make sense to also include site surveys to better understand the environment of the physical products or assets.

In order to ensure realistic and consistent use cases across the design, a set of personas should be defined, representing the typical users of the product or solution. Revisiting the User Journey from the initial business design helps clarifying many details. Finally, HMI (Human-Machine Interaction) design, early prototypes and wire frames are also essential elements of the UX viewpoint.

Site Surveys and Stakeholder Interviews

In order to capture and validate requirements, it is common practice for IT projects to perform stakeholder interviews. This should also be done in case of an AIoT product/project.

However, an AIoT project is different in that it also involves physical assets and potentially also very specific sites, e.g. a factory. Requirements can heavily depend on the type of environment the assets are deployed in. Also, usage pattern might vastly differ, depending on the environment. Consequently, it is highly recommended for the team responsible for the product design to spend time on-site and investigate different usage scenarios in different environments.

While many AIoT solutions might be deployed at a dedicated site, this might not be true for AIoT-enabled products. Take, for example, a smart kitchen appliance, which will be sold to private households. In this particular case it can make sense to actually build a real kitchen as a test lab, to test usage of the product in a realistic environment. Or, in the case of our Vacuum Robot, different scenarios for testing the robot must be made available, including different room types, different floor surfaces (wood panel, carpet, etc), and so on.

Personas

Personas are archetypical users of the product or solution. Often, personas represent fictitious people which are based on your knowledge of real users.

The Business Viewpoint should define a comprehensive set of personas which help with modeling the product features in way that takes the perspective of different product users into consideration. By personifying personas, the product team will ideally even develop an emotional bond to key personas, since they will accompany them through an intense development process. A persona does not necessarily need a sophisticated fictitious background story, but at least it should have a real-world first name and individual icon, as shown in the example below.

AIoT Personas

User Journeys

Similarly, User Journeys from the Business Model can be used as a starting point. Often it can be a good idea in this phase of the product design to create individual journey maps for different scenarios, adding more detail to the original, high-level journey.

Customer Journey for Vacuum Robot

UX / HMI Strategy

The UX/HMI strategy will have a huge impact on useability. Another important factor is the question, how much the supplier will be able to learn about how the user is interacting with the product. This is important, for example, for product improvements, but also potentially for up-selling and digital add-on services.

UX/HMI for Vacuum Robot

Mockups / Wireframes

UI mockups / wireframes are a powerful way of communicating the interactive parts of the product design, e.g. web interfaces and apps for smart phones or tablets. They should initially be kept on the conceptual level. Tools like Balsamiq offer a comic-style way of creating mockups, making sure that they are not mistaken for detailed UI implementation designs.

Example Wireframe for Vacuum Robot