Internet of Things, Services and Ecosystems

Pervasive and ubiquitous computing, such as the Internet of Things mean that our interactions with computer systems are no longer constrained to just a screen. How does this change how we design for user experience?

One could compare designing for an interface only interaction versus designing for persuasive and ubiquitous systems such as the Internet of Things, to an appointment with a general practitioner versus a holistic practitioner. A normal doctor, GP, looks at their patients’ physical symptoms and diagnoses a condition. A holistic practitioner, on the other hand, looks at their patients ́ body, mind and lifestyle before making suggestions and trying to help them. Of course, this is simplified and very generalized. But the point I am trying to make is that when designing for interaction with for example IoT, one needs to look at the whole user journey and consider each point of interaction. There is no definite start or end to each interaction as the experience is ubiquitous and follows through all parts of the user’s day and sometimes even life. This is why consent can be an issue when designing digital technology and is so important to the user’s autonomy, trust and privacy in the system.

With IoT, everything is connected and devices communicate with each other and might even share information about the user for an optimized interaction. This also means that sometimes things like consent can get a bit blurry. Questions such as which interactions were given consent to and in what way was the consent exactly obtained will inevitably arise. With ubiquitous computing, the systems usually collect their users' data without their awareness and consent is often gained implicitly through indicative actions such as just opening an application or entering a physical space [1].Applying the FRIES model from sexual consent as proposed by Strengers et al. [1] to persuasive and ubiquitous systems could be a valuable approach for user experience design. As of right now, startingwith freely given, the user often needs to consent to certain actions to use the product in the firstplace. Reversible consent may also not be possible without the option to erase the data that has already been collected. If consent with IoT for example is informed is up for debate too. Do the users know what they are consenting to in interactions with IoT? I assume most of them know which devices will listen to them, but are they also aware of which data might get shared and with whom? It is already difficult for users to understand what IoT does in general and what is going on behind the scenes, so it is even more challenging for them to make an informed decision on consent. Enthusiastic consent might be acquired if the user wants to use a product or service, but usually, it feels like they are consenting to fulfil the necessary means and expectations set by the product itself. And lastly, we have the specific consent, which again is very blurry. Many smart technologies are designed to be observant and their operations are purposely hidden from people. Many persuasive designs live off of the unknown, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to persuade, but this means that the user can’t consent to the specific interactions that the design will have with the user.

When it comes to the question of how one should design for pleasant and consensual experiences between users and IoT, there are several options. One could be to establish an ongoing dialogue between humans and technology. This could be done through conversations about expectations and values, followed by regular check-ins to see if someone has changed their mind [1]. Aftercare, a practice taken from the BDSM community [1] is could also be a valuable contribution to user experience design. Since there is no clear endpoint a care ritual, resembling a debrief could occur after certain periods of time have passed. There could be a conversation about whether the interactions had met the user expectations and if their preferences had changed over time [1]. It is important to create awareness around the interaction and actively involve the user, so they know what is happening at every given time and have the option to consent or not.

I think the biggest challenge for user experience designers is, that we need the users' consent for certain interactions otherwise a product or service might become “unusable”. How can we decide between making a user consent or having them not use our design at all? Neither of them seems like a desirable option.

Reference

[1]. Strengers, Y., Sadowski, J., Li, Z., Shimshak, A., & 'Floyd' Mueller, F. (2021). What Can HCI Learn from Sexual Consent?. Proceedings Of The 2021 CHI Conference On Human Factors In Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445107