UX Design For Smart Home Devices

𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 — 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 One of the most significant leaps in #IndustrialAutomation dates back to the late 1960s, when process control switched from pneumatic to digital technologies, with its roots in the massive adoption of #PLCs. Later in the 1970s, industries adopted systems like #SCADA, #DCS, Data #Historians, #MES, and #ERP. Although these technologies brought new capabilities, they also introduced challenges: ▪ 𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁-𝘁𝗼-𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Each system in this stack (represented by the Purdue Model, the basis of the #ISA-95 standard) connects directly to others, creating a complex network of dependencies that are difficult to manage and maintain. ▪ 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Changes to hardware, software, or workflows require significant time, effort, and costs to realign with interconnected systems. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲? The Unified Namespace (#UNS) is a real-time, event-driven central #data hub that acts as a "single source of truth" for all data exchanges within an enterprise. UNS condenses point-to-point integrations into a streamlined, standardized, and scalable hub-and-spoke model. Key structural elements include: ▪ 𝗛𝗶𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮: Organizing data by categories like "Enterprise→ Site→Plant→Area→Line" ensures context, standardization, and clarity. ▪ 𝗠𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲: #MQTT brokers manage data flow while maintaining interoperability. 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝟭. 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Identify key systems (see image below for examples) and define their integration scope. 𝟮. 𝗛𝗶𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻: Follow standards like ISA-95 to create a layered data structure, ensuring alignment with operational processes. If ISA-95 doesn't fully align with your operations, adapt the structure to suit your business's unique needs. 𝟯. 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Establish common formats like #SparkplugB, which improves MQTT by providing standardized payload structures and metadata for better device compatibility to simplify data exchange. Standardization reduces integration time and prevents data misinterpretation. 𝟰. 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗛𝘂𝗯 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽: Deploy MQTT brokers or similar technologies to act as the UNS backbone. The hub manages all data flows and ensures real-time processing for critical operations, scalability to handle increasing data volumes, and secure communication with encryption and access control measures. 𝟱. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: Begin with critical use cases, connecting one system or process to the UNS, then gradually expanding to include other devices and systems. ***** ▪ Follow me and ring the 🔔 to stay current on #IndustrialAutomation and #Industry40 Trends!

What's your approach to designing user flows? ✏️ -Understand the User and Goals: Start by gaining a deep understanding of the target users, their needs, and their goals. Conduct user research, interviews, and surveys to gather insights into their behaviors, pain points, and motivations. Define User Personas: Create user personas to represent different segments of your target audience. Personas help humanize the users and guide the design process to meet their specific needs. -Map the User Journey: Outline the entire user journey from the initial touchpoint to the final goal. This involves understanding the various stages users go through when interacting with your product and identifying potential entry and exit points. Identify Key User Tasks: Identify the primary tasks users want to accomplish within your product. Focus on the core functionality and prioritize these tasks in the user flow. Create a Flowchart: Visualize the user flow by creating a flowchart. Use arrows to show the sequence of steps users will take to complete their tasks. Consider different scenarios and decision points they might encounter. Keep it Simple and Intuitive: Aim for simplicity and clarity in the user flow. Minimize the number of steps required to achieve a task and avoid unnecessary complexity that could confuse users. Consistency across Platforms: If your product is available on multiple platforms (e.g., web, mobile), ensure a consistent user flow across all of them. Users should feel comfortable and familiar with the flow, regardless of the device they are using. Anticipate User Errors: Design the user flow with the anticipation of user errors or confusion. Provide clear error messages and guidance to help users recover quickly. User Testing and Iteration: Test the user flow with real users through usability testing sessions. Analyze the feedback and data to identify pain points and areas of improvement. Iterate and refine the user flow based on the insights gained. Collaborate with the Team: Involve stakeholders, designers, developers, and other team members in the user flow design process. Collaborative efforts lead to a more comprehensive and well-rounded user experience. Consider Edge Cases: Take into account edge cases and less common scenarios in your user flow design. This ensures that your product is accessible and usable for all users, regardless of their specific circumstances. Accessibility and Inclusivity: Design with accessibility and inclusivity in mind. Ensure that the user flow is usable by people with disabilities and diverse backgrounds.

In today’s always-on world, downtime isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a liability. One missed alert, one overlooked spike, and suddenly your users are staring at error pages and your credibility is on the line. System reliability is the foundation of trust and business continuity and it starts with proactive monitoring and smart alerting. 📊 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬: 💻 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: 📌CPU, memory, disk usage: Think of these as your system’s vital signs. If they’re maxing out, trouble is likely around the corner. 📌Network traffic and errors: Sudden spikes or drops could mean a misbehaving service or something more malicious. 🌐 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 📌Request/response counts: Gauge system load and user engagement. 📌Latency (P50, P95, P99):  These help you understand not just the average experience, but the worst ones too. 📌Error rates: Your first hint that something in the code, config, or connection just broke. 📌Queue length and lag: Delayed processing? Might be a jam in the pipeline. 📦 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 (𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐏𝐈𝐬): 📌Inter-service call latency: Detect bottlenecks between services. 📌Retry/failure counts: Spot instability in downstream service interactions. 📌Circuit breaker state: Watch for degraded service states due to repeated failures. 📂 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞: 📌Query latency: Identify slow queries that impact performance. 📌Connection pool usage: Monitor database connection limits and contention. 📌Cache hit/miss ratio: Ensure caching is reducing DB load effectively. 📌Slow queries: Flag expensive operations for optimization. 🔄 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐛/𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐮𝐞: 📌Job success/failure rates: Failed jobs are often silent killers of user experience. 📌Processing latency: Measure how long jobs take to complete. 📌Queue length: Watch for backlogs that could impact system performance. 🔒 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲: 📌Unauthorized access attempts: Don’t wait until a breach to care about this. 📌Unusual login activity: Catch compromised credentials early. 📌TLS cert expiry: Avoid outages and insecure connections due to expired certificates. ✅𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬: 📌Alert on symptoms, not causes. 📌Trigger alerts on significant deviations or trends, not only fixed metric limits. 📌Avoid alert flapping with buffers and stability checks to reduce noise. 📌Classify alerts by severity levels – Not everything is a page. Reserve those for critical issues. Slack or email can handle the rest. 📌Alerts should tell a story : what’s broken, where, and what to check next. Include links to dashboards, logs, and deploy history. 🛠 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐔𝐬𝐞𝐝: 📌 Metrics collection: Prometheus, Datadog, CloudWatch etc. 📌Alerting: PagerDuty, Opsgenie etc. 📌Visualization: Grafana, Kibana etc. 📌Log monitoring: Splunk, Loki etc. #tech #blog #devops #observability #monitoring #alerts

When designing an electronic device like a smart home gadget, a car dashboard, or a simple temperature sensor one of the most important things is figuring out how different parts of the system talk to each other. Devices don’t speak human language, so they use special methods called communication protocols. Think of these as “rules” or “languages” that chips and components use to exchange data. There are many types, like UART, I2C, SPI, CAN, LIN, and RS-485. Each one fits different needs. For example, UART is simple and works great when just two components need to talk like your microcontroller and a GPS module. I2C lets you connect several small devices like temperature or light sensors using just two wires, which saves space. SPI is faster and better for things like LCD screens and memory chips but needs more wiring. CAN is a popular choice in cars and industries because it can handle noisy environments and detect errors automatically. RS-485 is ideal when your devices are far apart like in a factory where sensors are spread across a large area. Even older systems like RS-232 are still used in some machines. Choosing the right protocol depends on things like how fast data needs to be shared, how many devices are connected, how far apart they are, and how reliable the connection must be. Picking the right one keeps your system simple, efficient, and dependable. It’s like choosing the best route for communication whether you’re sending a text, making a call, or mailing a letter, each method has a purpose. Match the protocol to your application: Need speed? Go SPI. Long range + reliability? Think CAN or RS-485. Limited pins? I2C or 1-Wire. Talking to just one device? UART is a no-brainer. The best protocol for your system really depends on your specific requirements such as performance, scalability, power consumption, or data integrity. Different protocols shine in different contexts, so it’s important to choose the one that aligns with the goals of your application. If you found this helpful, feel free to share it with others who could benefit from it! #EmbeddedSystems #IoT #Electronics #UART #SPI #I2C #CANBus #RS485 #EngineeringTips #Microcontrollers #HardwareDesign

Group-IB developed Smart Alert — a new technology for incident response and investigation. It consolidates over 3,000 signals into a single alert, letting analysts trace every step of an attack in one place: from the initial phishing email to the final malicious process. You can see when the email was delivered, when the user opened it, which host ran the payload, which processes spawned, and how the malware moved laterally. All key details — affected #hosts, malicious #processes, traffic #logs, triggered #signatures, attack #graph, #remediation advice, #attribution data, and analyst #comments, #case management — are combined into one evolving alert. As new signals come in — from network, endpoints, email, or threat intelligence — they enrich the original alert in real time. No alert noise. Even closed alerts reopen automatically if signs of the same threat reappear. No lost context, no starting over. Read how it works here and ask to see it in action: https://lnkd.in/gx9v4YFN

😬😞YOUR API is not MY Interoperability 😞😬 It seems rarely a week goes by where I don't have a conversation explaining why APIs don't *necessarily* solve #interoperability challenges. Or for that matter, why #BACnet is still important in 2024. The difference in the conversation with someone who reads press releases and product white papers, vs someone who's been in the trenches delivering, and more importantly, *supporting* integrations on day 2, 3 and 1000, is stark. So what does my rant have to do with this news? For years, high-efficiency, VRF (Variable Refrigerant Flow) and VAV (Variable Air Volume) residential systems have been locked behind proprietary APIs and interfaces. But that's changing – the emerging smart home interoperability standard Matter seems to be addressing this critical need. What is Matter? Matter is a new standard for smart home devices designed to eliminate fragmentation and make it easier for devices from different brands to work together seamlessly. It uses IP for device connection and state-of-the-art encryption methods for secure data handling. Benefits of Matter-enabled devices for home AC: Choice and flexibility: Matter breaks down vendor lock-in. You'll have more options to choose the AC system best suited for your needs. Easier setup: No more complex configurations - Matter-enabled devices use a common language, simplifying setup and management. Improved security: Matter's robust encryption standards enhance data security. Cloud-less integration: Control your AC and other Matter devices directly from your local network, minimizing reliance on external cloud services. Panasonic's new line of Matter-enabled air conditioners Panasonic India has announced that it will be releasing a new line of Matter-enabled air conditioners in February 2024 for the Indian market. These air conditioners will be compatible with a wide range of other Matter-enabled devices, making it easy to create a truly integrated smart home customized to your preferences. Let's applaud Panasonic for adopting this level of interoperability and hope they're able to bring similar innovation to other regions soon. #integration #matter #HVAC #OpenHVAC #Sustainability #Climate #Efficiency #HEMS #SmartHome https://lnkd.in/gYudpWt4

Most SaaS companies still rely on static health scores. The problem? By the time they fire an alert, the customer is already halfway out the door. Instead of static scores, you need a health system — a framework that tracks signals, triggers alerts, and connects to action playbooks, in real time. A score tells you what. A system tells you when and how to act. When alerts are tied to signals and playbooks, your team moves from reactive firefighting to proactive engagement. That’s the difference between waiting for churn… and staying one step ahead of it. So how do you actually build one? It comes down to 5 practical steps. 1️⃣ Map the customer journey -> Define the key checkpoints: onboarding, first value, adoption, renewal prep, expansion. -> Write down what “healthy” looks like at each stage. 2️⃣ Define the right signals -> Leading indicators (daily usage, exec engagement, QBR attendance) → trigger early. -> Lagging indicators (NPS, renewal outcome) → track for context, not action. 3️⃣ Set up two types of alerts -> ✅ Milestone alerts – pre-scheduled based on the journey (e.g. Month 6 QBR, Year 1 ROI review). They keep customers moving forward. -> ⚠️ Risk alerts – event-driven, triggered by negative signals (e.g. drop in adoption, sponsor silence, high support escalations). They help you act before churn. 4️⃣ Link every alert to a playbook -> An alert without a clear next step is just noise. -> Decide: who acts, what they do, and by when. 5️⃣ Close the loop -> Track which alerts triggered, which actions were taken, and what changed. -> Refine thresholds and signals over time — let data make the system smarter. What’s the most valuable alert you’ve built into your CS process? I’m building a library of best-practice alerts to share in a future post. Drop your most valuable one below 👇 #CustomerSuccess #CustomerHealth #SaaS #AIinCustomerSuccess #ProactiveCS

Your smart bulb shouldn't need a PhD in "Google" to talk to your smart speaker that only speaks "Apple." I've recently started working on the Matter protocol as a Research Assistant, which aims to bridge the gap between different providers out there. First things first: 🔍 What is Matter? - Matter is an open-source connectivity standard developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) with the goal of unifying the fragmented world of the smart home. It offers interoperability among devices from a wide variety of manufacturers. 🔍 Why does "Matter" matter? - Smart home ecosystems were traditionally walled gardens. Each platform (Google, Apple, Amazon, Samsung SmartThings, etc.) had its own communication protocols, APIs, and security layers. Matter changes that. It introduces a unified application layer over IP-based transports (like Wi-Fi, Thread, Ethernet), enabling devices to communicate natively across ecosystems. Think of it as HTTP for your home network, allowing devices to interact through a shared language, rather than custom dialects. 🔍 How does Matter actually work? At a technical level: ✅ It builds on IPv6 and uses Multicast DNS (mDNS) for service discovery ✅ Devices use CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) over UDP for messaging ✅ Communication is end-to-end encrypted using AES-CCM and operational certificates ✅ Onboarding happens via Secure Commissioning, which uses elliptic curve cryptography for authentication and key exchange The result? - When a new device joins the network, it doesn't ask: "Are you a Google Home or an Apple HomePod?" Instead, it says: "I speak Matter. Here's my certificate. Let’s talk." Right now, I’m working on making Matter compatibility seamless across a range of smart home projects—testing how devices from different ecosystems esp in medicine behave under a unified protocol and improving how they communicate. Have you used Matter in your own smart home setup? PS: this image was generated using AI :) #matter #security #smarthome

You’re researching the food scene in Puerto Vallarta on your phone one afternoon. The more you research, the more sure you are that you’re due for a trip. Why not now? Why not buy the ticket? You open a new browser tab and look up affordable flights to Mexico. You find a deal and know you’ve got to jump on it fast, so you start to fill out your information to make the ticket purchase. Then you stop. You drop your phone and open your laptop instead, and you make the purchase from there. It’s an intuitive, connected process across the two well-worn devices. Most of us have had this experience or something similar. Why do we prefer certain devices for specific activities? Understanding the differences in mobile versus desktop usability is essential for design and research teams aiming to create seamless user experiences. Let’s get into it. Mobile devices are typically used for quick interactions and on-the-go tasks. Users expect mobile interfaces to be fast, intuitive, and efficient for brief interactions, such as checking information or initiating plans. Desktops are often reserved for more complex tasks or significant decisions. Users feel they have more control and can access more comprehensive information on desktops. They are more comfortable handling extensive content, like reading legal documents or making big purchases, on a larger screen. Given these patterns, it's crucial that designs are not merely replicated across platforms. Mobile designs should prioritize speed and accessibility, allowing users to achieve their goals with minimal interaction; and desktop designs should focus on supporting more complex tasks and longer engagement. Users have come to expect this kind of cross-usage amongst their devices—it’s not a hassle to them, it’s a habit. Effective design teams integrate cross-device usability into their process, ensuring smooth transitions between mobile and desktop. This provides the continuity of experience, behavior, and motivation that users have come to build their daily decisions around. For business owners, recognizing the distinct needs of mobile and desktop users will significantly elevate product effectiveness and customer satisfaction. If you're considering mobile usability testing to refine your offerings, now is the perfect time to start.