The User Experience of Near Field Communication

Memi Beltrame

The User experience of Near Field Communication

May 15. 2013

UX Lisbon

THe Mobile revolution

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/612782641/

THe Mobile revolution

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/612782641/

The mobile revolution took us by storm and is still in full effect. I am going to tell something about the next chapter of this revolution. It is all about making everyday interactions easier and more enjoyable. Before we start I would like to make three observatons on things that I find make our lives hard in terms of interactions:

Money

Cumbersome interactions

Money

Cumbersome interactions

Number 1: Our daily lives are filled with complicated and confusing interactions with all sorts of objects and appliances like for example ticketting machines...

... or illogical arrays of light light switches.

Unneccessary

Unneccessary

Number 2: Our Lives are full of tasks we would prefer not to do and if we have the choice will be more than happy to skip them.This for example is one of many versiona of the WiFi Nightmare. In this case the provider wants to verify my existence via SMS...

The WiFi Nightmare

The WiFi Nightmare

...which of course does not really work without having a signal.

Context would be king

Context would be king

Number 3: The things we interact with are isolated objects that are not aware of who is using them or what else is around them.

So the main pain points of interactions are bad interfaces, silly workflows and the lack of context.

Rejoice!

http://instagram.com/p/YsyYEZIv4H/

Rejoice!

http://instagram.com/p/YsyYEZIv4H/

But don‘t worry: This is about to change. We are about to enter a new era. A time where objects are interconnected and where things can have an identity -making it possible to replace manual tasks by digital processes.

The Web of Things

The Web of ThingsThis is the era of the internet of things: Objects that have sensors and that can communicate via the internet with other objects. Objects that can be reached by smartphones and computers of the internet.Like this plant sensor that tells me if the plant needs watering through my mobile phone.

Near Field Communication

Near Field Communication

One important element in all this is a technology called near field communication or in short NFC.What you see here are the different logos used in connection with NFC.

Pairing

PairingWithout going into technical details, here's how NFC works:NFC allows smartphones and similar devices to communicate with each other just by holding them close to each other, usually no more than a few centimeters. This is called Pairing.

Tags

TagsNFC devices can read and write informations on NFC chips, called so called "tags".These tags can hold all sorts of information like links to websites, contact information or WiFi Credentials.

And that's all the technical info you need to know.

Here‘s an example how NFC works:This is a book that is part of a company library. The tag on the book contains a link that leads to the library page of this specific book. By swiping your NFC phoe over the tag your phones browser opens the books Library page and the user can borrow the book in a very simple process.

NFC SO FAR

NFC SO FARSo far payment systems are the most talked about application of NFC.

But:

Access & ID

Access & IDWe have been using NFC all along with smart ticketing systems like London's Oyster Card, with Library Cards, Or whenever you were given a card as your Hotel Room Key.

So why is this a revolution if we have been using it all along?

Access & IDWith the oyster card and you were given the chip. If you're using your NFC enabled Phone to interact with NFC this is completely different Story:With your phone you are holding the reader. And this reader has a display to show an interface, and because it is your personal device it is tied to you.

Access & IDSo NFC in the future will be about the seamless connection of information and personal devices.

Usecases

Usecases

I believe that the main fields where NFC has a lot of potential are travel and Tourism, Health care, and Home automation. Here a few examples.

Payment

Payment

Payment

PaymentI will not talk about payment methods.Contactless payments are fantastic but I think NFC has way more applications that just money exchange.

On the move

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsogood/2673797904

On the move

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsogood/2673797904

There are a few very interesting scenarios that have to deal with being on the move.

Wifi

WifiThe simplest of them is Access to wifi.Wifi in hotels and restaurants is a nightmare. NFC makes this simple:

The WiFi Credentials can be written on a tag so users just have to swipe their phones over it and they're done. No error prone typing. Fast and easy.

Tokio

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derguy/8042802029

Tokio

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derguy/8042802029

Next: Just imagine you are in a hotel room in Tokio, it is Summer. It's hot and humid.Luckily your room has air conditioning!

Unfortunately it comes with a remote control that looks like this.

Just imagine you could hold your phone against an NFC chip and it would display the interface of the air conditioning in your language. This is possible. The air conditioning could have a small webserver running and the tag would just launch your browser linking to the server of the air conditioning.

http://maxgif.com/341 

Car Sharing

http://maxgif.com/341 

Car SharingNext scenario: Imagine you share a car with your spouse. Now whenever you use the car after your spouse, you have to adjust the seat, the mirrors, the speakers, the radio station.If you have an NFC enabled car, all you need is to open your car with your phone and the adjustments are made automatically, because the car knows your phone.

★ CID Customer Identification Device (Lancia)★ Emotion Control Unit ECU (Aston Martin),★ Komfortschlüssel (Audi), ★ Keyless Access oder KESSY (Volkswagen, Skoda, Subaru, Hella)★ Keycard Handsfree Entry and Drive/ SES Smart Entry System (Renault)★ KeyFree Power (Ford)★ Keyless Drive / Keyless Vehicle (Volvo)★ Keyless Start (Suzuki)★ Komfortzugang bzw. Comfort Access (BMW)★ LogIn (Mazda)★ PASE Passive Start Entry System (Siemens VDO)★ PEPS Passive Entry Passive Start / Open & Start (Opel, ContiTemic & Hella)★ PEG Passive Entry Go (DaimlerChrysler, Hella)★ PE/PG Passive Entry Passive Go und CE/CG Comfort Entry Comfort Go (Bosch)★ Smart Entry & Start (Toyota)★ Smart Key (KIA)★ Intelligent Key (Nissan)

List of Keyless Go Projects

★ CID Customer Identification Device (Lancia)★ Emotion Control Unit ECU (Aston Martin),★ Komfortschlüssel (Audi), ★ Keyless Access oder KESSY (Volkswagen, Skoda, Subaru, Hella)★ Keycard Handsfree Entry and Drive/ SES Smart Entry System (Renault)★ KeyFree Power (Ford)★ Keyless Drive / Keyless Vehicle (Volvo)★ Keyless Start (Suzuki)★ Komfortzugang bzw. Comfort Access (BMW)★ LogIn (Mazda)★ PASE Passive Start Entry System (Siemens VDO)★ PEPS Passive Entry Passive Start / Open & Start (Opel, ContiTemic & Hella)★ PEG Passive Entry Go (DaimlerChrysler, Hella)★ PE/PG Passive Entry Passive Go und CE/CG Comfort Entry Comfort Go (Bosch)★ Smart Entry & Start (Toyota)★ Smart Key (KIA)★ Intelligent Key (Nissan)

List of Keyless Go Projects

This is an impressive list of projects by car manufacturers that are dealing with Keyless Key Systems.

Looks like this is something that will hit the market very soon!

REntals

REntalsA similar use case is rentals: this is a project from Barcelona called Eco-oltra and it is a system that let's the users rent a electric scooters using their mobile phones and then, using NFC they can also use the mobile phone to start the scooter because it detects that this mobile has been used to make the reservation.

REntalsThis has the very great advantage that if your motorbike does not work you can very easily request the key for another bike without have to go anywhere.

Healthcare

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveynin/7417095278

Healthcare

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveynin/7417095278

Change of Scene: Let's have a look at healthcare:Whenever I am in a Hospital I am always surprised that there are almost no digital processes. A lot is done by handwriting on paper. Very error prone and it does not scale. All this Equipment that you see generates an immense amount of data, related to one patient. Data that is not tied to the person digitally.

This is a Thermometer. Imagine that every Patient would have a NFC Tag attached to the bed. This Tag would just hold the ID of the patient. This ID would correspond to a profile of the patient in the cloud. The thermometer would be able to read the tag and transmit the measured temperature to the patient profile.

This can be extended to all sorts of measurements like blood pressure, weight or also medication like infusions and syringes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/6869336880

http://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/6869336880

When the doctor comes to visit you all she needs is a device that can read the chip and gets all the data from the profile that she needs to assess your case.

Precautions

Precautions

This is all very exiting, but there are a few things to consider:

Not all smartphones have NFC. iPhones don‘t have it and by far not all Androids support it.Another big issue is Battery life, also a huge problem.

These two issues point to the rule that users should not have to rely solely on having a smartphone to use a service.

Enhancing

Enhancing

Using your mobile can also just be the enhancement of the NFC tag you‘re given so that the basic experience works without you having to rely on your mobile

A nice illustration of this is the ordering process of the italian restaurant Vapiano in Zurich . You get an NFC card on which every order is recorded.

Whenever you order a pizza you also get a buzzer that is paired with your card and when the pizza is ready the buzzer goes off. This buzzer could be replaced with your phone and because unlike this buzzer your phone has a display it allows even more functionality like for instance ordering more drinks

Design in Flux

Design in FluxHow will this affect us designers? Designing for NFC and the internet of things is becoming an interdisciplinary field consisting of service design, interaction design and industrial design.

Design in FluxWe will design a holistic experience that goes beyond the screen, we will have to take into account where the system will be used, where the tags will be placed and how are users going to interact with them.

devices

devicesWe will have to know a lot more about the context of users in the wider sense. If we want to design a holistic experience for a hospital we will have to think about a lot more that just how user needs are translated to the screens. We will have to observe a lot to see the potential for improvements.

Controls

Controls We will have to a lot to do with translating hardware controls into easy to use interfaces.

Workflows

Workflows We will have to think very hard about workflows and about the connections between the digital and physical world to make sure that the experience is really seamless.

R/Evolution !

R/Evolution ! A lot of this is happening right now. There are millions of NFC Capable devices - they‘re just not being used.

The future of NFC is now - it just needs a broader, NFC conscious audience.

Thank You!I‘m Memi Beltrame@bratwurstkomet