Last year, I wrote an article on Indoor Navigation and the possibilities it brings. Since then, much has happened within the field and I’ve been following the developments closely. In order to explore the technology and investigate how it could be used to benefit users, I’ve created the prototyping app REC that will make it easier to build customized indoor navigation systems using Bluetooth sensors. These systems have the potential to greatly improve the contextual relevance of mobile services, by allowing businesses to test and evaluate many different scenarios.
Background
Mobile services have been growing and evolving ever since the release of the first smartphone. Users happily adapted to the new interaction languages and came to expect to use services through their mobiles. However, many companies got so excited about this that they drowned users in content, ads, and notifications with little thought of the context or the personal nature of mobile phones. The result is that many people have grown skeptical towards mobile services.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Services have the potential to be exceedingly useful in people’s lives, just by being a little more contextually relevant. We need to help designers make sure their services are built with the intention of adding value, so that the user feels helped rather than overwhelmed by too much information in the wrong context.
We can do this by answering two questions about the user: “who are you?” and “where are you?”, and then tailoring communication accordingly. The first question includes things like demographics and personal preferences, like what we’ve liked on social media or how old we are. The second question puts the user in a spatial context, where they either may or may not benefit from interactions with services. We can answer the second question by creating indoor navigation systems. Over the past year, beacons have been adopted as the way to build these systems. Beacons are small, cheap Bluetooth sensors that can interact with smartphones. The technology is constantly changing and becoming more tailored to the task, however, so what is interesting now is not the actual technology but how it can be used.
Bridging digital and physical experiences
With the internet of things we are transitioning into a world where physical products are expected to come with a digital aspect – for information, added experiences, or for administration and configuration. Today, there are in many cases a frustrating disconnect between the digital and physical experience of a brand, service or product. Take a home furniture company as an example – whatever time you spend browsing on your couch gives you nothing in return when you enter the store; not in the structure of merchandise, in the display of offers, and not in the signage. There is, in short, no communication between the two experiences.
Bridging this gap could greatly benefit users. For example, I’m sure most of us recognize the frustration of shopping in a different grocery store than the one you’re used to. Suddenly, the aisles are a maze and the milk is impossible to locate. Here, knowledge of our frequently bought groceries combined with the knowledge of where those groceries are located could create a great opportunity for relevant communication. I’ve discussed the possibilities more in-depth in my previous article, but the interesting thing about indoor navigation is that the uses are endless and can be made to suit any business.
So what do we do with this?
In order to explore the possibilities, I wanted to create a tool that would let us freely test the technology in different situations, in order to see what works best. It’s important to understand where we draw the line for mobile interactions, what is too obtrusive, what is enough, what we willing to do for convenience, how and when we are willing to receive contextual notifications.
To accomplish this, I made a quick and easy prototyping tool. Having made the first round of sketches I started working with two creative developers over at Prototype. We made our own beacons and linked everything to the software Invision, making it possible to test out an unlimited number of contextual scenarios just by changing a few variables. Used in creative workshops with our clients, it’s already been an invaluable tool when it comes to deciding how beacon technology best suits different contexts and brands. Together with our clients, we explore how increased contextual awareness and personal relevance can make their offering smarter and more attractive to customers, by using REC to test scenarios with real users.
Being contextually relevant means customizing one’s offering to suit the user’s needs – based on who they are and where they are. My hope is that REC will make it easier for services to figure out how to do this, and to harness an exciting new technology to make it possible.
Article provided by Veryday
Red Dot Award 2014
Design team of the year
