TINK - sketching product experiences of connected objects

60 - TINK
Research results
The recording of the sessions were
analysed; the most important findings are
here presented:
Interaction designers’ knowledge
on the possibilities offered by IoT
products:
All the participants demonstrate to have a
very good knowledge about the possibilities
that connecting product to the Internet
could bring to the design practice. In the
initial brainstorming phases in fact already
several topics came out.
Participants with more technical skills
produced less ideas then participants with
less technical skills, we might reconnect
this to the fact that technical minds
tend to focus too much on the technical
feasibility of their idea, this results in a
limitation in the idea generation phase.
The use of inspirational card to
develop new ideas
The set of card was valued as a very
important tool to generate new ideas and
have a good overview of all the technical
possibilities brought by the possibility of
connecting object to the Internet.
Some participants stated that the cards
were very useful since they were promoting
reflection on single aspect of the
interaction at the time.
While the cards where very good in trying
to inspire new ideas on a technological
level, there were no cards tackling a user
centred design perspective. These made
the users experience the set of cards more
as technology-driven than a design driven
tool.
The communication model as a tool
to structure the system
The participants to the test experienced
the communication model very positively.
The tool helped them to deconstruct their
concepts in small actions.
The strict division between the facet of the
interaction proposed by the communication
model, forced the participants to think in
terms of minimal pieces of interaction and
helped them deconstruct their concept in a
very efficient way.
The cyclical structure of the model, allowed
the user to decide where to start filling it
in:
• A first approach used was to start
by listing the data needed by
the system. Connections were then
created according to which actor in
the scheme was producing and using
the data.
• A second approach was to focus
on one facet of interaction at the
time, for instances on the interaction
between the object and the user,
once that section of the graph was
completed, the participants focused
on another section. The connection
between consecutive actions
happening in different sections was