Magdalena Breitinger
PRODUCT DESIGNER
IIP and me
The project
During the second semester, a research project was conducted. The project was located in the area of smart homes and the internet of things. Therefore, it was part of the ‘Creating Rich Interaction in Growing Systems’ squad.
The goal of the project was to conduct research on a novel approach to the smart home, called ‘Interactive Intentional Programming’.
The system is based on new principles: Intentions, which set the overall reason for the smart home and scenarios, the actuations.
These principles may sound very abstract in the beginning, which could cause difficulties for the user.
The project was focusing on Scenarios as they are the central part of IIP and most difficult to clearly understand but also explainable in a very simple and universal way. Additionally, research was conducted on intentions.
The goal of this project was set to give a very clear understanding to the potential user of what scenarios are and where they are used to be able to get started with IIP.
In addition, the research on user understanding of IIP was conducted to possibly also help to identify the weak points of IIP in relation to user-friendliness.
The result was a phone application called ‘IIPandMe’ to help potential users to understand IIP. It consists of a written introduction, Multiple-choice questions and a ‘Do-It-Yourself’ part.
To achieve these outcomes, quantitative and qualitative research was gathered in form of a survey and a user test on the final prototype.
The process
The process of the project was dominated by the two big research moments within it. First, a survey was conducted on thirty users which was finally followed by a user test on the final prototype.
To begin with, however, it was important to define the research question and general area of research:
Introducing scenarios of Interactive Intentional Programming to the potential user: How can Interactive Intentional Programming be made accessible?
For a successful outcome, a detailed literature review was conducted. This process included works on the smart home in general, more specifically IIP but later also literature on the conducting of research and the design of user interfaces.
The second stage of the project was the preparation of the survey. The main focus was on the formulation of meaningful questions to form a base for the content of the interface and give general insights on the thoughts of potential users of IIP and the issues they might encounter.
This survey was filled out by 30 participants and included rituals, scenarios and intentions.
The results were then analyzed with excel and implemented into the final paper as well as the prototype.
Following this process, the design of the prototype was initialized by finding the appropriate platform. Afterwards, the content of the interface was developed, which focused on the communication of IIP to the user and served as the design outcome of the project.
Based on this, an interactive prototype was designed to make the product both appealing and improve its user experience.
As a final step, the prototype was tested in a controlled setting and the feedback was evaluated to improve the final user interface.
This whole process and the research outcomes were then summarized in a scientific research paper.
Following the project, I also participated in a six-week research program at the National Taiwan University in Taipei to build a functional demonstrator of an IIP system.
