As the products obtain intelligence and are connected to each other, everyday life with things changes. The thermostat automatically regulates the temperature of house, watch orders pizza for user, and users communicate an intangible avatar, called agent. With the emergence of intelligent system such as Internet of Things (IoT), designers are facing new design paradigm shift. It provides new design opportunities to empower people and enrich their everyday life. However, intelligent systems such as IoTs focus on technical elements, and there is still lack of user-centeredness in design. To overcome these problems, design researchers are required to better understand nature of smart and connected things and their impact on users’ lives in IoT context. In this project, we aim to explore user’s mental model on IoT systems and define true user-centered design in this design space. To achieve this aim, a practically applicable level of guidelines and methodology for designing interaction with intelligent system consisting digital agents and connected things are being developed.
The ability to anticipate end-user needs in the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) design is currently limited. Thus, this study aims to introduce Beauty and the Beast, a new IoT design method that enables IoT design ideations considering the needs of the user, while retaining IoT properties. This method employed improvisational acting by four acquaintances who acted out the roles of three IoT products and one user. Through five studies and two designer workshops, we discovered several advantages of the method, which demonstrate its potential to discover more human-centered IoT design ideas.