Prototyping tool design: Prototyping user experience in systems with multiple devices & sensors

Abstract: Many recognize the phrase Smart Home, but few have actually experienced it. The world of Internet of Things (IoT) is all over the IT industry. The hardware already exists. So, why do we not see these kinds of solutions in reality? A simple Smart Home experience could be a system that consists of a motion sensor and a coffee machine. The motion sensor is placed above your apartment door. When it senses that you come home from work, the sensor signals your coffee machine to start brewing a cup of coffee. The above example is easy enough for most users to imagine and design, but for them to actually create and test it is almost impossible. The skill of programming sensors to communicate with objects is still highly technical. This thesis addresses this problem and describes solutions for users with no technical background to more easily create this type of experiences. The final prototype design of this project is a software tool design that lets users with no experience in programming create simple User Experiences that includes various sensors and multiple devices. In the prototype, these experiences can also be manually simulated in the tool without using physical sensors connected to the software.