A new uncharted design territory We are only beginning to understand how people will interpret and use smart products. Just as it has taken time for windows, icons, the mouse and cursors to take hold in personal computing, means of communicating with smart products are still being explored. The design potential for smart products is very large. It is bound up with behavioural responses, and the myriad of combinations of choices available. For instance, it is not fully understood how people respond to different accents or genders of voices in smart products dependent on synthetic speech. The evidence is that irritation can quickly set in because of repetition, if insufficient variety is provided. For all of these combinations, the action - reaction possibilities have to be accommodated, if not explicitly designed. The working context and how it impacts on the operation of the smart product is crucial, especially where the product reacts with its environment. The design of smart products is dominated by "soft" behavioural and interactive elements, in contrast to the "harder" aspects of physical structure and aesthetics, which feature in conventional design. In comparison to conventional design explicit consideration needs to be given to the context, and to what might be called the operational ecology of the smart product.

Understanding use (users, usability, usefulness, usage)

A key characteristic of smart products is their interactivity. How and why smart products are used is a complex issue, however. Patterns of usage take time to become established and usefulness is not absolute - it also develops over time, depending on changing patterns of need. As well as the more immediate individual experience of use, these aggregate over populations of different users, varying habits and varying patterns of usage.

Accessing and integrating relevant technology

Conventional products have fairly standardised design and development processes, including for example an infrastructure of appropriate component suppliers, established training paths and ample supplies of expertise.

In contrast, smart products make use of a range of new technologies and many of these are still at the research stage. As a result, a body of systematised knowledge is only just being formed. It usually takes several years for research results to become tested, limits proven and techniques for application to be devised. Even fewer people have an in-depth working knowledge of a range of the new technologies, and are therefore able to compare their merits.

Simply identifying the capabilities of these new technologies is difficult. And once identified, it is just as difficult to acquire the expertise to apply and use the technology. Click here to find out more about different sources of knowledge that might be useful.