The Many Screens of Your Connected Things
Our day-to-day lives are surrounded by “Connected Things.” Some things we wear, others we hold, while a few just sit on a table waiting to be heard.
As these connected devices become increasingly familiar, UX designers may ask themselves a few key questions around things like: network connectivity, data collection methods, and screen usage (if any) across touch points. One of the most important items involves the touch points, and screens the user will interact with throughout the experience.
Most designers, design responsively, and have done so for a few years now. While those patterns are typically limited to viewports sized from handset to desktop, the full connected ecosystem includes a wider range of devices from smart watches and televisions, to screen-less experiences like Amazon Echo and Google Home.
What is the Connected Ecosystem?
The connected ecosystem allows users control of content across digital and physical locations, and across multiple devices.
While many patterns exist for these connected experiences, they normally fit into four primary experience buckets.
1. The Consistent Experience
The consistent experience displays the same, or similar, content across devices, with allowances for context and touch points.
Similar to a responsive Website where the same content displays on each device with primary content moves to the top of mind.
2. The Extending Experience
The extending experience begins on one device and continues on another device.
Imagine listening to an audiobook on your Audible account on a laptop, pausing it, and continuing in your car from your phone or at home from your Amazon Echo.
3. The Complementary Experience
Devices compliment each other in functionality for collaborative control over the larger experience.
The Nest thermostat can be controlled from a number of sources, and each source then responds to any changes to the Nest hub itself.
4. The Companion Experience
In the Companion Experience devices add functionality to a primary experience.
With Daily Burn, users have the ability to track their progress live on a secondary device (handset or tablet) while watching their workout on a television.
The experiences mentioned are not limited to just one experience pattern. Often there are applications with hybrid experience patterns as well.
By providing companion, extending, consistent or complimentary experiences, users will be able to maneuver through your connected ecosystem. When exploring the user interactions within any specific system, understanding and knowing how the end user will experience the application will help drive usability and end user engagement.
Keep getting connected!
