Project ‘Everywhere’- Generating Concepts – Part 3 of 9

To extend from my most recent blog post – ‘The IoT‘, now came the time to ‘put pen to paper’ (figuratively speaking). After analyzing some of the research, I started to formulate some ideas that resembled a loose attempt at answering the project brief (of which can be viewed here). From my perspective, I tend to find that a relaxed approach produces a larger spectrum of results for creativity, rather than forcing myself to think of a viable concept to run with. Additionally, intertwining these ideas thereafter, can produce some surprising and unique results.

To accomplish this project I shall also be working with another two of my peers, Edward Hart and Shaune Oostuizen. So what did ‘we’ as a group want to create? Firstly, there was an emphasis on keeping the product ‘off screen’. Just bearing this in mind, whilst on the quest for product inspiration, tended to steer the group away from an IoT service (usually involving  mobile OS) and gear it more toward a viable product for development. Secondly, what were we all interested in? We reviewed some industries and collaboratively decided upon some topics to follow:-

• Sports
• Music
• Technology
• Business/Service
• Science
• Travel
• Recreation

From the above categories, it was then evident a greater number of areas needed to be considered whilst reading around the subject of the IoT. Which industry is successful nowadays? where is there room for an emerging product? The Music industry as a point of example, has seen 3 very successful mobile apps. Shazam, whereby your device listens to music playing in your environment, and within 10 seconds of analysis, matches the track online and feeds back the name and artist for your future reference. Spotify and Soundcloud, which are huge online databases of music, have been set up so people can stream and share their own personalized catalog of music, both of which have different features to make them unique. Now with the national-wide coverage of 3 & 4G wireless internet connection, it has meant portable devices can bring these services direct to you as a consumer – almost anywhere.

To extend from beyond looking into an already successful Music industry, it made the group pursue another tangent, the Travel and Recreation industries. It was safe to assume at this point, that either not so many products on the IoT have been released encompassing these markets or there was just a greater opportunity for innovation of a product. A couple of examples for the Travel industry would be Tripadvisor and Skyscanner. Tripadvisor is a user based rating system for points of interest near to your GPS location. The vast majority of people who wish to use a hotel or dine in a nearby restaurant will almost certainly reference this product before making an informed decision. Skyscanner is a product that was developed for the monitoring of cheap flights globally. Not only does it show you the results it then re-directs you in to the correct travel agents/airline to finalize a booking.

An example from the Recreation industry would be that of Magic Seaweed. What stands this application out from any other surf shop is that it has a unique feature in conjunction with a simple user interface. It allows for real-time viewing of Maritime and Metoffice reports, combining such information as; tide times, surf height, swell direction, current and predictive weather conditions, introduces a rating system based upon this collected sensory data and presents it to the consumer. It is a very good example of illustrating where the line between service and retail business is differentiated.

Business and Services are an integral part of the IoT, therefore it warranted some additional research. Buzz words of ‘today’ include; Green, carbon footprint, ubiquitous computing, calm technologies, ambient technology, sensory and wearables. It could be construed that anything that promotes either one (or multiple) of these factors would be advantages when thinking about a new IoT product. Research carried out by Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, forecasts that:  (Gartner.com,2014) 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 percent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020.¹ Gartner also estimates that the IoT will support total services spending of $69.5 billion in 2015 and projects a total of $263 billion by 2020 (Gartner.com,2014).² Considering the presented information, it emphasizes the importance of establishing a foothold within this industry, as it clearly demonstrates potential for success.

From the information above, it has allowed the group to produce three project proposals and cultivate a solid concept for progression. This shall be explained further within my next blog post – which can be found here.

Reference List:-

Text:-

1) Gartner.com, (2015). Gartner Says 4.9 Billion Connected. [online] Available at: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2905717 [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].

2) Gartner.com, (2015). Gartner Says 4.9 Billion Connected. [online] Available at: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2905717 [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].

Images:-

3) Shazam.com, (2015). Get Shazam so we can share!. [online] Available at: http://www.shazam.com/apps [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].

4) Factets.com, (2015). Factets.com : A data-driven approach to facebook game and application analytics. [online] Available at: https://www.factets.com/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].

5) Softicons.com, (2015). Evernote Icon – Advanced Flat Social Icons – SoftIcons.com. [online] Available at: http://www.softicons.com/social-media-icons/advanced-flat-social-icons-by-uiconstock/evernote-icon [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].

6) Hoteldelftcentre.nl, (2015). Referenties | Hampshire Hotel Delft Centre. [online] Available at: http://www.hoteldelftcentre.nl/reference-2/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].

7) WeRSM | We Are Social Media, (2015). Tackle Your Travel Bug with These Top 8 Travel Apps. [online] Available at: http://wersm.com/tackle-your-travel-bug-with-these-top-8-travel-apps/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].

8) Camelsailingpowerboatcentre.co.uk, (2015). Links – Camel Sailing & Powerboat Centre. [online] Available at: http://www.camelsailingpowerboatcentre.co.uk/Pages/Links.html [Accessed 23 Oct. 2015].