Machine Learning Algorithms

We are heralding a new dawn with 2020 – a world where neural networks, deep learning, and NLP are fast coming up as competitive differentiators. Businesses across the world are embracing Machine Learning technologies with gusto. Hence it doesn’t come as a surprise that Boston Consulting Group predicts 25% job loss due to machine learning algorithms and automation.

While data is essential for machine learning solutions, the algorithm behind it is equally essential. If you are looking for the most popular machine learning algorithms in today’s times, then check out our compilation:

1. Naïve Bayes Classifier Algorithm

This algorithm performs well with huge data spanning millions of records in the data set. There are two main forms of this algorithm – Gaussian Naïve Bayes (Apply normal distribution to continuous attribute values) and Multinomial Naïve Bayes (for data that shows multinomial distribution)

This type of algorithm shows immense value in –

1. Sentiment Analysis (used by Facebook to assess status updates)
2. Document Categorization (Google uses it for Indexing for PageRank)
3. Spam filtering (used by Google)

2. K Means clustering Algorithm

This is one of the simplest unsupervised learning algorithms that can solve the common clustering issue. It displays better clustering performance than hierarchical clustering. Its key application is by search engines like Yahoo and Google.  They use this technique to group the web pages based on the ‘relevance rate’ of the search queries.

3. Support Vector Machine Learning Algorithm

SVM algorithm continues learning from the classified data set to understand the classification pattern and apply it to new data. On training data sets, SVM is known to provide high accuracy and incredible classification performance. It uses the concept of hyperplane (a line) to classify data. The more it is away from the hyperplane, the better is its classification accuracy.

This algorithm is prominent in financial sectors where analysts try to compare stocks and its movement vis-à-vis competitive stocks or benchmark stocks.

4. Linear regression

In simple terms, it compares the inter-relation between two variables and assesses how a change in one impacts the other and to what extent. It is used by small and medium businesses in their revenue forecasting and team growth predictions.

For instance, if the sales are following a linear trend, this algorithm can accurately forecast the possible sales in the upcoming months.

5. Artificial Neural Networks

This is a class of algorithms modeling that mimics the biological neural structure. Some of the popular algorithms in this category include Perceptron, LSTM Recurrent Neural Network, Boltzmann Machine, and Radial Basis Function Network (RBFN). They are routinely used for regression and classification problems.

These networks can combine with other networks through the input layer, output layer, and hidden layer. This, in turn, forms multiple layers which give rise to deep artificial neural networks. Their architecture expands the realm of machine learning to delve into deep learning.

Which other machine learning algorithms have you been using for meeting your specific business objectives? Do write to us and let us know.

Technology Trends in 2018

Digital experts and tech giants have always talked about the importance of innovative computing technologies. These processes and methodologies will develop and bring down market costs to a great extent. The opportunity to innovate interactions will initiate organizational growth. Every organization would like to stay ahead of the growth curve, and that’s where they need the support of unique technologies.

What do the statistics state?

When it comes to assessing the growth and development of technologies, there’s no denying the contribution of tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet. These ventures together contributed a lot to the total market gains. In fact, federal investments in the digital market will touch the $95 billion mark by 2018. Now, we know how the technology market is going to shape up in the coming years.

Identifying the promising and prospective technologies at this juncture will be a great thing to do. We must have a look at the four exciting technologies that are expected to leave a mark in 2018!

1. IoT

Internet of Things is crucial, and it’s here to stay. According to market sources, a whopping $6 trillion will be allotted for IoT solutions within five years. If we take a look around, we will surely come across numerous smart homes.

People are already living in smart homes, waking up to smart alarms, and having smart voice assistants at home. The trend will increase over time, and the time isn’t far when every process will get automated. Internet of Things has already made an indelible impact, and it will continue to rule the tech arena in 2018 too!

2. Virtual Reality

It is highly imperative to track the growth of VR in 2018. Revenues of VR content will rise from USD 2274.24 million (2017) to USD 13964.98 million (2020). Head Mounted displays revenue too will rise from USD 3243.12 million (2017) to USD 6498.26 million (2020).

Although, this particular technology is taking giant strides towards development, there’s still room for improvement. Creation of attractive content and high-value services would be important. VR will stay, grow, and excel if experts innovate and improvise the VR-supported modules.

3. Chat-Bots

Enterprises across the globe consider customer service to be an integral aspect of their services. Consumer satisfaction is highly important, and this is where smart consumer-facing chat bots making all the difference to the CX industry.

Chat bots humanize machine interactions, thus helping you develop a personalized camaraderie with consumers on the other end. Advanced bots also leverage AI to ensure interactive UX. Looking at its ability to generate business with 47% of the consumers, the trend will surely grow and reach new heights by the end of 2018!

4. Augmented Reality

With the two most popular tech giants, Google (ARCore) and Apple (ARKit) making the first move, startups and other ventures will try their best to invest in AR. The sector is expected to grow in the next 4 years to touch $83 billion per year by 2021. The top brands are already planning to incorporate AR strategies looking at this disruptive trend.

Signing off

These trends will determine the market for innovative technologies in the coming year. If you are working in the digital sector, it’s high time to wait and watch out for them!

Skills Artificial Companies should invest in

If we take a look at the present market trends, it will be easier to get an idea of immense growth of AI . This growth spans companies across industries, maturities, and competencies. With many startups, established ventures, and tech giants gearing up to embrace AI technology, there’s no denying its bright and promising future.

Amidst all this hype around AI, one can identify its rapid adoption. It’s true that a lot of companies belonging to diverse sectors have adopted AI methodologies.

Let’s take a look at some market stats that explain the situation better!

Market statistics

According to reliable market reports, 38% of ventures are already leveraging AI. This is done with a goal to accelerate growth and development. By the end of 2018, the figures will rise to 62%. That explains why AI is important and crucial for ventures across the globe.

However, with the ever-growing importance of Artificial Intelligence and increasing market demand, it’s high time to identify ways to improve it.

The top 4 AI skills

If you are running an AI organization, you must be aware of the skills that empower ventures across the globe. Here’s a quick look at the top four skills every AI Company should invest in:

1. Natural Language Generation or NLP

Natural Language Processing is an innovative technology that helps machines to understand language the way it is spoken or understood by humans. Different approaches like distributional, frame-based semantic analysis, or interactive learning will help upsell your NLP experts’ skills within the AI ecosystem.

2. Chatbots

When it comes to ensuring excellent customer service, most of the ventures opt for chat bots. Chat bots can connect with human intelligence thus helping organizations develop a unique relationship with their customers. Knowledge on AWS S3, AWS ML, jQuery, JavaScript, SQL, and PHP will be vital in developing chatbots.

3. AI-centered hardware

Appliances, graphic processing units, and other hardware units should be designed, developed, and created with AI in mind. Companies should develop hardware systems that are appropriate to perform AI-centered computational tasks. Hardware units are as important as software skills. Quite naturally, it becomes imperative to develop and design them with AI in mind.

4. Biometrics

You must have heard the term ‘biometrics’ while checking out the staff attendance systems in enterprises. AI is growing and that too at a rapid pace. Quite naturally, organizations should enable increased interactions between machines and humans. The ideas shouldn’t be only restricted to speech, body language, and touch recognition. Biometrics encompasses a broader perspective and positive interaction is a crucial part of it.

Final thoughts

Artificial Intelligence processes, technologies, and methodologies are talks of the town. There’s no denying the buzz they are creating in the professional arena. AI companies should strive hard towards developing skills that empower organizations. This will help them deliver immense business value.

You have to identify development opportunities and incorporate the right strategies for the right set of business needs. Develop these skills if you are running an AI organization; they will take your venture to unsurpassed heights!

How to use Virtual Reality for your Marketing Campaigns

Virtual reality has already obtained a huge visibility in the marketing sector. The smart marketers have already started designing their marketing campaigns keeping VR in focus. However, there are still many who don’t have any idea on how to approach marketing through VR technology.

In this article, we tell you how you can unleash the power of virtual reality in your marketing campaigns with these 5 hygiene checks.

1. Make Virtual Reality campaigns mobile-focused

When you are investing in the technology, ensure its success by targeting the right platform. Between desktop and mobile, it is very clear that mobile that wins every race these days. Almost 90% of your users use smartphones and have access to a mobile device more than anything else. Hence, it is both practical and necessary to target your marketing campaigns for mobile platforms.

2. Evolve the content you provide through technology

Having a great VR technology is not enough. You need to ensure that the consumers are getting engaging content. The campaign that you strategize should focus immensely on the content quality. Only then, you can expect people to embrace it. A high-quality app won’t mean anything if the associated content doesn’t address the core problems of the users.

So, keep the content quality in mind while planning your marketing strategy with virtual reality. To do so, you need to analyze your target market. Analyze their core issues and create a VR marketing plan that can resonate with their needs.

3. Let users perform

With the availability of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, every digital consumer has gained the ability to perform. You can tap into this trend with virtual reality and create a community around your brand. The marketing plan can leverage virtual reality to present an application of gear that allows the consumers to perform in some manner. However, that whole plan needs to be relevant to your business and marketing goals.

4. Be very thorough about the craft

Virtual reality is something that engages multiple senses of the users. So, you don’t want to mess the marketing plan due to low performance of the created craft. Complete testing of the technology is the key to ensure the success. Audi’s virtual car showroom is a great point in case.

For this, it is important to conduct practical tests on the VR technology before implementing it in your marketing strategy. Without that, unwanted situations and bad response can ruin the whole effort.

5. Make it easily accessible to people

The VR technology has become much more visible in the world of marketing. The consumers now have access to gear and other devices to obtain such technologies. However, it is your responsibility to ensure that the content you create complements the VR platforms that your target market uses.

Hence, it is important that you need to strategize your campaign and test the technology. Plus, the content creation and the interactive nature of the VR will also decide the success rate of the marketing plan.

So, keep all the above five points in mind in order to leverage virtual reality as a game-changing tool for your marketing plan.

Meet Mitra – The Made in India Robot

Mitra – a robot created under the mission of ‘Make in India’ recently attracted many eyes at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2017 where she greeted the honorable Prime Minister – Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump. Invento Robotics is the smart brain behind creating this 5 foot robot and Mitra is becoming highly popular among the robotics enthusiasts and other industries.

Image reference: Hindustan Times – Mitra Robot at GES 2017

Want to know why Mitra is being considered a one-of-its-kind robot in the global robotics arena? Here are 5 good reasons:

1. Quick Development

While all the other humanoids took years for production, Mitra was created in just one year. And even with such quick creation, it contains exceptional and revolutionary features that make the robot extremely spectacular.

The features, the design, and the performance capacity have allowed Mitra to add value to customer interactions at places like Canara Bank as well as PVR Cinemas as well. The robot is being used in many branches of Canara Bank and also assists people with their basic banking queries and surprises guests with its multi-lingual skills. It also interacts and helps people in the PVR cinemas of Bangalore.

2. Better than the best

When it comes to comparison with other humanoids, Mitra is beating the best. In fact, the quality and the performance level of Mitra is being compared to ASIMO, a Honda project in Japan. While ASIMO took about 17 years to get ready, Mitra has matched its performance level within just one year of work.

3. Highly interactive

The name ‘Mitra’ means ‘friend’ and the humanoid justifies the given name completely. The robot has an intuitive capability that allows it to talk and interact with people conveniently. The facial recognition feature helps Mitra instantly recognize customers and provide the desired serrvices. This definitely bumps up the user experience at any store.

4. Memorizes faces

Another great reason for Mitra being an awesome humanoid is its ability to remember faces. The robot has the capacity to memorize the face through different identity signals. This allows the robot to provide a personalized approach to the interactions. This ability is also the reason why Mitra successfully steals the highlight during events and public appearances.

5. Extremely versatile

Apart from all the features, it is the active nature of the robot that makes it highly valuable for various industries. The combined features and mechanical performance allows the robot to perform the given tasks. The ease of leveraging the performance of this humanoid is the reason why Mitra has already started delivering outcomes for stated objectives in banking and entertainment sectors. It won’t be a wonder if it is soon embraced by other industries as well.

In closing..

Thus the above points depict why the humanoid Mitra has obtained the green signals in terms of funding and time. This, in turn, will help it evolve and get more advanced in the coming years. It would be interesting to see the evolution of this humanoid in the coming future across a broader scope of practical applications.

How to start your career in Data Science

Data science is known to power up business value across industries like financial, healthcare, and technology. Professionals in this field empower the management to make better data-backed decisions and help unlock opportunities previously hidden. If you want to start as a data science professional then this field is extremely lucrative for you. However this move can reap rewards only when you approach your career in a strategic manner.

Interested to know of some handy tips when you are starting a career in data science? Then this post will help you

1. Examine the multiple roles in data science

The first thing you need to do is examine the roles that are available in the data science sector. Some of the key roles include machine learning specialist, data engineer, data visualization specialist and others.

Choosing the correct specialty is extremely important. You need to match your role with the work experience and the background that you have in your career. Hence, it would be wise to gather information regarding each and every role of the industry and match your qualifications and expertise to select the best one for yourself.

2. Obtain skills for the role

The next thing you should do is to start looking for the educational courses that can help you prepare for the role you have selected. For that, you need to take a course that suits your interest. The theories can help you learn the skills and prepare for the challenges of the career. But make sure you are selecting a reliable course to obtain the skills.

3. Get in touch with industry specialists

Surrounding yourself with experienced professionals is a great move to keep yourself motivated and grow continuously. Though it can seem a little difficult at the beginning, you will eventually start interacting with more and more specialized people.

You can start by interacting with the specialists on social media and indulge in a valuable technical discussion in your niche.

4. Merge theory with a practical approach

Data science is not only about technical theories. The practical approach is extremely important if you are looking for a long term run in the industry. You need to grow your practical knowledge of the work that is required in the industry. For that, you need to spend more time in practical applications through different working opportunities.

5. Work on your communication capabilities

Just because you are in a technical field, doesn’t mean that you should stop yourself from obtaining better communication capacity. The data science industry offers an immense level of positive career growth to the professionals with strong communication skills.

6. Gather resources for current trends

To stay ahead in the game, you need to present yourself as a modern and well updated professional. Only then, you can expect companies to put their faith in you. So, keep on gathering resources regarding the current trends. Also, join a peer group online where you can share knowledge about data science tools and resources – Reddit is a great place to start with. Also, attend webinars and online sessions that help you stay updated on the current trends.

7. Choose the right tool or language

Choosing the right tool or language could be a difficult decision, but we suggest that you use the widely used tool / language to begin with. In this way, it will also be easy to find resources and tutorials online. It is imperative that you understand the concept rather than focusing just the right tool. Start with the coding language that you are familiar with and slowly begin to build on it. If you are new to coding then you should prefer GUI based tools to get started off with.

Challenges will come your way. But amidst all this, it is your motivated approach that will help you in conquering all those challenges. So, keep on trying and making your way towards desired success. If you are an upcoming data science professional then these handy tips will prove to be vital in giving you a good foundation to a successful data science career.

UX Design Trends in 2018

Did you know that a whopping 79% of individuals abandon a particular site if they don’t like the content? Also, with marketers placing utmost importance to content, it is only imperative that design layouts, both mobile and desktop incorporate the content experience as a crucial factor of UX design.

If you are planning to create a website with unique design ideas and are letting customers be effective with their time on the site, then UX will emerge as the key success driver.

Here’s a quick look at the eight major design trends that will rule the world in 2018!

8 UX Design Trends to look out for in 2018

Building an exciting website in 2018 can be tough if you don’t know the latest trends on board. The following pointers will surely help you create a stunning, unique, and fully functional website:

• Use the power of  ‘negative space’ for Content Experiences

Minimalist design is the most widely accepted design trend and the whole purpose is to remove distractions and help the reader focus on the main thing – Content.

Negative space also known as white space is a crucial aspect while designing a web page. It offers room for creativity and also acts as the breathing space for the important elements in your website. This white space design also helps readers to navigate easily on the website without creating any visual obstacles.

However, the concept of ‘white space’ isn’t new. Crucial changes in reading habits have compelled  UX designers to incorporate this particular element. Open layouts and white space will increase readers’ focus, and it greatly improves the user experience.

The best example of using white space for a content centered experience is Medium – the single and utmost focus is to enable readers read long form blog posts without any visual distractions.

• Conversational bots

Facebook popularized Chat Bots to a great extent. The messenger app helped numerous individuals create operational bots, and the number has increased significantly. The initial figures were 30,000 and that has gone up to a whopping 100,000 today. With some of the leading companies embracing the idea of Chat Bots, effective marketing communications and customer service has become easier than ever!

Some brands have also seen a spike in orders because of the ease and convenience of conversational bots. Hence, it is safe to assume that 2018 shall see more of such interactive design features on their websites.

• Omnichannel UX

It is time we change focus from a mobile-first design. The number of connected devices are increasing and especially with Internet of Things (IoT) gaining more popularity, it is just natural that designers thing of an omnichannle user experience now. Today’s users are more goal oriented and are more concerned with completion of that goal irrespective of the devices they interact with.

While creating an omnichannel UX, a designer should be mindful of creating a seamless flow of user journey and make it easy for a customer to transit from one device to another without any hiccups in the user experience.

• Moving closer to Virtual Reality

Although there’s a lot to improve, VR will still make significant impacts this year. Companies will incorporate VR strategies while showcasing products. Also, designing gestures for a VR environment that are similar to the natural environment will bey a key focus to help the VR market grow. More and more brands are opting VR technology for their marketing strategies only to create a different ‘user experience’.

Hence, VR is definitely going to be a subset of the greater picture of UX design in 2018.

• Micro-interactions are common

If you wish to accomplish or complete a single-dimensional task, micro interactions will give you the perfect opportunity to do so. Here are some of the use cases of micro interactions:

• Feedback communication or the consequence of a particular action
• Accomplishing individual and isolated tasks, connecting one post to the other
• Manipulation of a particular setting
• Prevention of user error

The flexibility to add reactions to a particular post on Facebook is the greatest example of Micro-interactions.

• Voice User Interfaces

Technology is constantly evolving to make daily tasks of human life easy and 2018 is definitely the year where Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are going to gain more popularity. Design is bound to slowly move focus from clicks on websites to screenless experiences.

We already have a range of VUIs such as Siri for Apple, OK Google for Google, Alex for Amazon and Cortana for Microsoft, and a Gartner survey also suggests that 30% of our interactions with technology will happen in a more conversational style.

Hence, designing fro VUIs is going to gain momentum in 2018 however there is still time for this technology to mature and replace graphic user interfaces as these AI systems still need to become more efficient at understanding ‘how’ people talk about topics and the conversational flows.

• Card-based designs are going a long way

Web designers and marketers are quite familiar with the ‘card-style’ design. The trend isn’t new and will continue to rule the design world. With Google implementing it into the material design, the trend seems to have a bright future.

The card design layout helps to showcase a lot of content in a clutter-free way on smaller screens. Also, the card layout helps to maintain design consistency across different devices such as mobiles, desktop and tablets.

A good example of the card-based design is again Medium where tons of content is displayed in a neat layout and it also makes it easier for the user to find what he is looking for click.

• Smart and Personalized designs

Brands are moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to a creating custom tailor-made experiences for each individual user. Also, with advancements in AI and Machine Learning, today companies have enough and ample data about user behavior, buying patters, interests etc.

Design also will now cater towards creating more personalized user experiences to enhance interactions with the brand. This is bound to take personalization and brand experience to the next level.

Conclusion

We looked at some of the key UX design trends that are going to take dominate 2018, but like they say, trends come and go, but what matters is that we continue to design and build products that touch people’s life. If you think there is an upcoming design trend that needs attention, let us know 🙂

What to expect from the iPhone X

The new iPhone X was launched on 3^rd November 2017, with a slew of features never seen before on smartphones. The bold lines and new look are captivating the fancy of every iPhone fan across the globe.

Here are all the first impressions of iPhone X that will blow your mind.

1. New face ID feature

Apple promised to provide a convenient face scanning locking system and delivered it very well with iPhone X. The new phone allows people with different beard styles, glasses and even a hat to easily lock and unlock the iPhone X with the Face ID feature.

It takes seconds for the phone to identify the person and unlock the phone. As soon as you pick your phone, it unlocks and opens the home screen for you.

We can safely say that this phone has the best Face ID scanning so far.

2. Display

With a 5.8 inch, the display impresses users who like to watch a lot of video content on their phone. The size is not too big nor too small like the Plus version of iPhones. This one allows the user to hold the phone conveniently and offers better video experience as well. The length of the phone is top-notch that doesn’t make it seem very heavy.

3. No home button

This is probably the most visible change you can notice in the iPhone X. The home button has been replaced with a swipe up feature. You can swipe the bottom section up to explore the multiple tasks that it can offer.

This new feature allows the user to shift from one app to the other and then come back to the home screen by swiping back.

4. Wireless charging

Though this feature is not new in the mobile world, the wireless charging in iPhone X is highly impressive. The device supports the inductive charging based on Qi. This feature has definitely increased the convenience of using iPhone X to a whole new level.

5. OLED screen

Apple has shifted towards OLED with this phone. The display uses OLED that offers a good display experience. However, the display of Apple phone has always been exquisite. This time more vibrant colors have been introduced, which enhances the appeal of the wallpaper.

The phone is equipped to contain the OLED feature with certain steps to avoid screen issues. So, there is no need to worry about the threats you find on Android displays.

6. Beautiful design

The design of this iPhone version appeals so much to the eyes that you would not want to use a phone case. Apple has again done a great job in bringing an artistic appeal to their iPhone devices.

In closing..

Finally, the first impressions makes it clear that iPhone X is an incredible device with unique features. The device has taken huge leaps with the Face ID recognition and other specifications.

Do you know of any other feature that makes the iPhone X a truly one of its kind? Write to us and let us know.

Using AR for Marketing & Branding Campaigns

Augmented reality has been a fairly new concept in the world of branding and advertising. But in 2017, it seems like every single brand is leveraging this technology to maximize their marketing and branding results. The ability to impact the perceptive environment of the viewer with the virtual technology has opened new gates for the marketers across the globe.

Everyday a new brand is launched and companies are wrapping their head around new and innovative marketing campaigns to entice the customer. If you need compelling reasons about how much of an impact Augmented Reality can have on your marketing campaigns, then this blog is all you need to get your wheels in motion. This post showcases 5  very successful branding campaigns that utilized augmented reality in a smart way.

• Celebrating moments with AR – Starbucks

In 2012, the world renowned brand Starbucks used AR as their go-to technology for an innovative and interactive valentines day marketing campaign. The campaign required users to download the AR app and hold it against their coffee cup to send a unique romantic card to their special person. This interactive and engaging customer experience resulted in a huge footfall at Starbucks outlets and proved to be successful

Watch video to understand how Starbucks has used AR in its marketing and branding initiatives.

• Environment Awareness with AR – Coca Cola

It always doesn’t have to be about business, some Brands aim to serve a larger purpose. Coca cola, a widely celebrated soft drink along with WWF used augmented reality to spread the alarming environment message of  global warming and melting of the Arctic circles. The campaign was made live at the Science museum in London where through AR, people were transported to the Arctic circle among Polar Bears and were given a real-time experience of the how the environment is being damaged.

This intelligent use of AR technology helped to establish an immediate connect with the audience and such an emotional yet important message was sent across in the right way.

Watch video on the Arctic home campaign

• Augmented Brochures- Siemens

Augmented reality can be an excellent choice to showcase product demos. Siemens is currently leveraging the AR technology to present their new product range. The customers can effectively experience the simulation of AR and see the products in genuine sizes. This way, the product’s design and size are now available to the customers no matter where they are. The augmented reality approach allows the brand to highlight and market the features of their product in the most effective manner.

Watch this video to know more about the campaign

• An Augmented Reality Car Race by Acura

The whole idea of using Augmented Reality in branding campaigns is to give the customer an unparalleled experience and engage him in a new way. Acura, set up an augmented reality race track where the drivers were given an AR helmet with unpredictable and unique environment challenges to drive the car in. In this way, the car was in real-time tested for safety and different road conditions and get a real-time experience of driving the Acura TLX.

This marketing and branding campaign by Acura was a unique way to make customers excited about their new product.

Watch the video here.

• Media promotion with AR by National Geographic

With the new series called Genius, National Geographic has now entered the scripted show range. The media company decided to promote this Albert Einstein’s series through augmented reality. The technology was used at the SXSW festival 2017 where people got to go inside the virtual mind of Einstein.

The AR technology allowed the people to see the virtual networks in the mind of the genius that helped him in creating mathematical ideas and the concepts of physics. And finally, the ideas interacted with the visitors.

Watch the video here.

Thus, all these examples clearly show that AR is presenting some amazing opportunities for marketing. A versatile range of industries are leveraging this technology to enhance their engagement and personalize their marketing approach.

Designing an intuitive dashboard for IoT Products

Smart homes are soon becoming a more acceptable norm of society now with devices such as Amazon Echo, Google home, Alexa etc. But it is not just the technology that makes these products a massive hit among customers. A lot of thought has gone into designing such user-friendly IoT products.

As a product engineer or a UX designer who is working on an IoT project, your main focus is centered on creating and designing a product that brings immense value addition to your client.

One of the most crucial designs in IoT products involves the look and feel of an IoT dashboard which serves as the touch point for the user to interact with the device.

In this blog post, we are going to talk about the 4 steps involved in designing an intuitive dashboard for IoT products.

1. Break down the User Journey:

Take this a thumb rule – before you even get to the stage of picking up your pencil and sketch pad, spend some time to research and understand what kind of IoT product are you designing for?

It could be anything ranging from a smart system that controls the lighting of the house to a smart refrigerator that sends updates on the grocery list or a super efficient home locking system.

For better understanding, let us take the example of designing an IoT dashboard for a smart refrigerator that allows the user to track the details of grocery items and to set up reminders in the user’s mobile to stock up items.

Now, before we get down to designing this dashboard, as a product designer you first need to understand the underlying technology that will be used by the refrigerator such as, what kind of sensors would be triggered, what kind of data will be recorded, how will the data be analyzed etc.

Your job is to represent this underlying data in an intuitive manner. This is where your creative mind kicks in and is expected to think about the user journey and different use case scenarios. Also, while designing it is very necessary to be mindful about the target audience who is bound to use the product.

In the above example, the smart fridge is going to be used by a household which would include:

• a family of 4-5 members
• the users could be aged between 24 to 55 years
• the user could be either male or female
• pet-friendly house

Now based on the above user scenarios, you will be able to sketch out different user journeys.

2. Create the Skeleton with Wireframes

This is the fun part because here is where you actually visualize each and every action of the user. Some people call the wireframe stage as setting up the blueprint of the design and functionality of the product.

Now, when you are designing the dashboard of an IoT product, it is necessary that you visualize each and every step of the user and jot them down into squares, circles, and triangles. The key here is attention to detail. Step into the shoes of the user and think of the ways he/she will use the product on a real-time basis. Document scenarios that are not so obvious but have a probability to pop up.

In this stage, you also get to logically test the flow of user actions. Yes, ‘Logic’ is the word here. Don’t just go by your gut or instinct, you need to think if the steps in your wireframe make logical sense in the bigger picture. Sketch out as many possible scenarios here. Do not restrict your mind to – ‘this is it’! Explore different options and also be conscious to capture different user emotions while sketching the wireframes.

Don’t just put a button because it has to be there. Think of how you expect the user to navigate to a particular page such as – to check the grocery stock, to get alerts on food items that are running low on storage, setting timers for bakery products etc.

Once you have a gamut of ideas, sit down and evaluate the best possible user flows to create an unparalleled user experience (UX). This is the most important part of the whole designing process and so it is imperative that you get it right. The UX is the make or break deal for the success of your IoT product.

3. Bring your Product to life with Visual Designs

For all those creative artists out there, this is the stage where you need to find the Picasso inside you and splash those colors into the wireframes. But don’t just add any color – keep in mind factors such as color psychology and branding guidelines (if any) while choosing the colors.

Let us go back to our example of the refrigerator dashboard and see the kind of colors we could use.

It would be advisable to use a lot of white space in the design to give it a neat and easy user interface (UI). Also, depending on the USP of the overall IoT product, either blue or green could be a great choice of color for a dashboard.

If the highlight is more on the technology, then blue would be an ideal choice as it showcases intelligence and is a color that is most commonly used with electronics. But let’s say if the USP of the IoT product is to highlight health or any environmental benefits, then green would be an excellent choice to complement the messaging. Also, colors such as red, yellow and green can be used to indicate any functionality features to the user.

So, in a nutshell, while you are creating the visual designs keep the end user in mind and choose colors that are able to communicate instantly with the user.

4. Test your Designs – Time to Prototype:

This is the last and final stage of the design process where your designs are put to the ultimate test. With the help of many online tools such as Adobe XD or Invision, you can test your designs in real time and showcase the functionality to your clients.

This real-time feedback helps you to iterate designs on-the-go and incorporate all feedback at one point. It is important that all designers prototype their designs since quick and responsive designs translate into happy clients.

Thus, designing for IoT products can be slightly different from creating mobile apps and websites as User Experience is the key here. But with the above-guided approach, you can be assured of designing a vibrant and intuitive dashboard for IoT products