by Exosite, on August 30, 2016
A successful IoT solution has the ability to improve the user’s life in a number of ways. Whether it’s by increasing the security of a home or the efficiency of a factory, the goal of a connected product should be to add value to the customer’s life. A complete IoT strategy does not stop there, since a complete solution must include all of the back-end features while incorporating a clean and easy to use front-end. What’s the point of a connected product if users cannot smoothly integrate it into their routines?
Client or application-side development requires that you choose your front-end framework and develop standards around what your teams will create.
Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs): It is important to identify, design, implement, and test all of the APIs that are needed by entities external to your IoT solution. Examples of this include device-facing APIs, management APIs, provisioning APIs, and APIs to integrate external services and data. Similarly, you will need to design how your front end will interact with the back-end APIs for your solution, and ensure that performance is acceptable as your solution grows.
Applications: Web and mobile applications play a critical role in helping end users visualize data and gain insight. With each browser or mobile OS deployment, you will test and update over and over again. Every few years, you will completely revamp your look and feel to incorporate new methodologies and technologies, and ultimately optimize the user experience to continue to impress and dazzle your end customers.
Support: Once you have released your connected product, you have to be especially keen to the on-going support that your front end is going to need. The way your user interacts with their data is paramount to your solution and, with the changing landscape on mobile operating systems and web browsers, you will need to make regular updates to keep things running and to incorporate new features that add even more value to your solution. This is true of not only consumer products, but also industrial solutions.
For a complete description of how to ensure a successful IoT solution through front-end user experience, download the full white paper below or contact us to speak with one of our IoT experts directly.