Designing Calm IoT Technology in a World of Distraction

In this video from Sensors Expo 2019, Design Practice Lead Steve Veltkamp will look into ways to relay important messages through user-centric design and calm technology through an IoT lens.

The world has never been more connected. As far back as 2008, there were more IoT connected devices than human beings. By 2022, the number of IoT devices in the world could reach 50 billion, according to Juniper Research. 

There are lots of benefits to the increasing adoption of IoT technology (I should know, since I work at an IoT development firm…). But there’s one big consequence we’ve been choosing to ignore time and time again: Our attention is being hijacked. 

Across our many connected devices, we’re constantly interrupted by unimportant alerts and tasks masquerading as urgent messages. On top of that, we are constantly having to install yet another app to manage one more little task.

Though there is an increasing amount of technology that requires our attention, the amount of attention we are able to give remains the same. That means it’s on us (or more specifically, it’s on us as designers and developers) to design IoT products so that they help people achieve their goals without getting overly distracted. 

That’s where calm design comes in.