A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

1. From use cases to users
perspectives
A process towards the definition of a
tool for IoT urban service design
Mario Chiesa – ISMB; Cristina Barbero, Simona Ricaldone – Concept Reply

2. Context and motivation
design and prototyping in the real world of an
innovative technological platform
– hardware
– system architecture
– middleware
– applications
to implement future horizontal services within the
Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

3. Context and motivation
As an example of future “horizontal” implementations
of IoT technologies and services, we chose a mall
with:
– A parking area
– Shops
– Other typical services
– Associated touchpoints
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

4. Context and motivation
“How does and how can IoT services impact and
change the way people experience their city?”
“How to create an IoT ecosystem that creates mutual
benefit for both service contributors as well as
service consumers in order to encourage active
participation and long term sustainable growth of
the city platform?”
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

5. IoT value drivers
• infrastructural values
1. simplified manual proximity trigger
2. automatic proximity trigger
3. automatic sensor triggering
4. automatic product security
• motivational values
5. simple and direct user feedback
6. extensive user feedback
7. mind-changing feedback
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
“Simplified and
automatic extensive
feedbacks”

6. IoT in public urban areas
• Diffused and horizontal solutions
• Loose definition of goals
• Users with very different skills
• Multiple services at the same time, with different
timescales
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
“very different from vertical
professional environment“

7. The design challenge
• How different users will perceive their
interactions with IoT services?
• Why they will decide to use and
interact with many of them?
• How their daily life will benefit from them?
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
“Multiple levels for motivational aspects and
feedbacks“

8. The design challenge
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
“How can we answer to those crucial
questions?“
“How can we communicate those
motivations?“

9. Limits of classic design tools – 1/3
Scenarios, use cases, tasks descriptions:
are linear and homogeneous ways of developing and
describing stories. They usually need to ground their
narration on a set of pre-assumptions (technological
or motivational), develop it through a sequence of
actions and events, and end with a finite set of
possible conclusions.
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

10. Limits of classic design tools – 2/3
As a linear narration they find difficult:
• to describe multiple forks along the process
• to highlight the richness in the offering of services
• to describe the generation of complex services
• to describe simultaneous situations and conditions,
and their evolution
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

11. Limits of classic design tools – 3/3
As an homogeneous narration they find difficult:
• to satisfy the need of describing and representing
the same event or sequence of events towards
different communities
• to allow the addition of future services,
implementations into the same narration
• to describe the same events with different eyes,
according to the different involved stakeholders
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

12. Inspirations – 1/4
Scenario based system design
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

13. Inspirations – 2/4
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
Isometric projections

14. Inspirations – 3/4
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
Storytelling

15. Inspirations – 4/4
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
Toys

16. Plain text microstories
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
Microstories can:
• break a scenario in its basic units
• describe a use case from more viewpoints
• leave room to side descriptions and situations
that typically would be lost

17. Plain text microstories
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
Microstories can:
• enhance the added value perceived by users
– when they get in touch with the system (as a
single experience)
– during their usage of the system (again as a single
experience)
– in the long period, as an overall perception of the
system as it impacts in their lives (as a global
experience)

18. Microstories from existing user stories
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
developing microstories means to break apart
each use case into several microstories, in
order to create:
• at least one single experience microstory for
each step in the use case
• at least one global experience microstory for
each use case or usage scenario

19. Microstories from investigation phase
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
developing microstories means to translate into
its narrative form the results of a clustering
session, in order to create:
• at least one single experience microstory for
each item of a cluster
• at least one global experience microstory for
each cluster

20. Microstories, time perspectives and roles
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
Final users Providers
Global
experience
Personal achievements,
global considerations
Business goals,
overall evaluations
Single
experience
Single actions, local
advantages
Single actions, local
advantages

21. User perspectives
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

22. Instant perspectives
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
“The next step in the
visual representation of
the microstories
is their visualization in
the real use context“

23. Instant perspectives – work in progress
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

24. Instant perspectives – work in progress
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

25. A glimpse of other project’s activities
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
XMPP
• Ad-hoc commands
• Publish-subscribe
• Data forms
IoT Middleware

26. A glimpse of other project’s activities
From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design

27. From use cases to users perspectives
A process towards the definition of a tool for IoT urban service design
Mario Chiesa
Istituto Superiore Mario Boella
chiesa@ismb.it
Cristina Barbero, Simona Ricaldone
Concept Reply
{cr.barbero, s.ricaldone}@reply.it
Thank you!