Let's Fix Things

Starting with updates from last week Joe and Guus open by revisiting Pokemon Go and Amsterdam planning to roll out free wifi. The main topic revolves around 3 methods used at Raft to brainstorm on interaction with connected devices. Guus and Joe discuss how we use these options to open up ideas on how companies may find unique and stronger ways of users interacting with their devices as well as how companies can find seeds of potential business models.1. User interacting with the device (through a middleware such as an application)2. The device interacting with a service or company3. The user interacting directly with the device through it’s HWGuus brings up the idea of “Aura UI”, which is using sensor to interact with the device from close distances, which sat somewhere between the first and third method. Joe reviews examples from each section and discusses how they can be used to brainstorm.Joe briefly gets distracted on companies taking an application first strategy with IoT, expressing that companies need

This week Guus and Joe ramble and discuss Pokemon Go more than they should, looking at how consumers will trade off privacy and security for convenience and fun - although should companies encourage this trade off, or assist in protecting consumer privacy? Joe discusses the first Tesla automatic driver death and the challenge of devices that make life and death decisions. Linking the ethical challenge of connected devices to the Kobayashi Maru - a concept introduced in Star Trek which placed star fleet officers in unwinnable situations to understand how they react under stress.The conversations then bounced between connected devices and wearables, and their often lackluster security. Guus looks at potential issues with data from wearables being used by insurance companies to exploit and incent users, while Joe argues that people will continue over time to give up data as long as they get a personally beneficial return. The duo look high level and who is responsible when data leaks or is used against consumers

Looking forward 10 years, Joe and Guus discuss how and why paying for connectivity, both users and devices, may change. Guus and Joe then look at how connectivity will change over time. Spurred by a conversation with the VP of Cognizent's Digital Transformation team, the show discusses if connectivity will be free in the future, and if so, at what cost. It covers new rollouts of LoRa and IoT infrastructure, as well as new 4G and 5G infrastructure becoming more privatized and how that may impact the user experience. Joe talks about time in Helsinki with 4G and MiFi devices - Guus argues for Net Neutrality while Joe debates it's potential decline as a positive - Joe talks about advertising propping up free connectivity as a business model and what that would look like for the user experience - Guus presents the idea that free connectivity would mean giving up privacy or security - Guus wants more privacy as we're going towards less and less - Joe rants on current free connectivity spots and their poor quality a

AT&T IoT for business In this shorter segment, Joe and Guus quickly look at what it would mean for IoT services to be bundled and sold by larger brands. Larger companies are developing all encompassing platforms while smaller start-ups are pushing out more specific or niche products. Connected products currently have problems that are limiting mass adoption, which include: Technology components are out of date before the device should be replaced Hardware price is high due to not subsidy or service model Set-up can be difficult and confusing Most products lack a service model beyond selling cloud storage Guus discusses the Apple store allowing for companies to handle subscription based pricing, while Joe opines that subscriptions for individual services will leave a feeling of disconnection and give users more chances to stop a service. IoT and connected device companies should look into a bundling service where HW prices can be offset by recurring service revenue and that a set of products together

Dedicated to how brands can capitalize on connected devices and becoming more connected brands. Joe starts off discussing Kintsugi, the idea of repairing broken ceramics with gold to make the new product more valuable applies to IoT. Guus and Joe debate about progressive enhancement versus graceful degradation.The conversation then looks at how connected devices bring companies more touchpoints and data that can be used to build customer loyalty. At the same time with companies offering middleware services, brands can find themselves in a white label situation if they aren't careful. The large players like Google and Amazon push smaller services through a non-visual interface. Even smaller products like Nuimo, Knocki, and Flic provide controllers that push services to not be seen by users. Joe discusses what brands can do to help avoid or capitalize on being a white label. Guus questions if companies can accept or should care if their brand name is marginalized if they are getting more revenue. The discussion

This week, Guus and Joe talk about building connected tables, and why connected furniture as we’re seeing it might not be the best idea. Also an involved discussion about why building prototypes is so important to find out how products connect to user behavior. Joe starts at the top ranting further about Siri and WWDC. The discussion looks at Apples drive to incorporate Siri into current devices, which offers limitations while at home. Guus and Joe briefly look at Amazon and Google offering their solutions to connected home automation and better natural language processing – and why those may be stronger in-home devices. Guus talks about building a connected table with particle.io photon micro-controller and an accelerometer. These components allow the table to record tapping or knocking and control devices around it – including playing mysic and turning on the lights. Guus talks about signal filtering, why it’s useful, hooking up the table to our resident bot (aio) to handle natural language commands, and wh

Joe and Guus discuss customer journeys for connected devices, why apps are not the answer, and what building bots has taught us in the IoT space. Guus discussed building a bot named aio. Joe shares thoughts around companies losing direct touch points with customers due to 3rd party tools and what a customer journey could look like for a connect device. Looking at moving from the previous 3 screen (laptop, tablet, mobile) and 5 screen (+TV, watch) strategies to a no-screen strategy with voice, chat, and sensors as the main UI users may interact with.More can be found at: raftcollective.comHosts: Joe Fletcher and Guus Baggermans // Creative Director and Principle Designer at Raft collective. Embracers, hackers, and early adopters of IoT technology. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Following on the heals of WWDC, Apple announced Apple Home and Siri in the SDK. Joe and Guus explore the UI aspects of the Apple Home app and what we’d like to see in a UI from a smart home application – hint, it’s not an application. We discuss the need for portability of information within a hub, and if an Apple TV is the best hub available. What is means to be trapped in a closed system, and the frustration the Siri isn’t a single brain across devices. We also discuss why OS level integration is the real winning UI of the current phone application and how this may set Apple up to control their own ecosystem better than other 3rd party aggregation applications.More can be found at: raftcollective.comHosts: Joe Fletcher and Guus Baggermans // Creative Director and Principle Designer at Raft collective. Embracers, hackers, and early adopters of IoT technology. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letsfixthings/message

Raft’s inaugural podcast, exploring the question that if we have the right technology, why can’t companies create meaningful and useful IoT products in the consumer space. We believe everything should be magical – that devices and technology should fade into the background and everything should just work. For anyone who is an early adopter of IoT consumer technology, they are painfully aware this is not the case. We discuss what it means to have a magical experience, such as the small details of Chromecast, or the broad details of the Disney Magic band. We then break down several reasons why even well meaning companies, create friction in their products. These include: Proprietary technology Too many technology choices The belief that everything needs an application Abandoned products Unsustainability technology in long term usage products Lack of meaningful solutions Factorial and exponential complexity of connected devices Hosts: Joe Fletcher and Guus Baggermans // Creative Director and Princi