Connected Homes

Most conversations about the connected home begin with a solution in search of a problem: smart thermostats, voice assistants, app-controlled lighting. The assumption is that homes are waiting to be upgraded — that the introduction of networked devices will naturally improve domestic life.

Instead of focusing on problems/behaviours that are aided by IoT technology, Quicksand’s design sprint took a different approach—it used ethnographic research situated in homes across Bangalore to break down how people are interacting with their everyday spaces. How do people communicate within households? How are shared responsibilities managed? How do they stay connected to family members living elsewhere? How do they remember, archive, and share the moments that matter?

The learnings from fieldwork pointed to a reimagination of homes as dynamic spaces that are sensitive to material improvements, pushing the dynamics of interactions to adapt to the same.

The domestic lives of individuals is a complex mix of sophisticated practices and habits centered around objects, making it essential to understand how technology might enhance rather than disrupt what people already value.

Design Provocations

During the design sprint, Quicksand meticulously selected ethnographic methodology to observe users within their everyday intimate spaces like bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc. The team photographed refrigerator doors and terrace gardens. They watched how people navigated unsaid rules around hospitality, privacy, and shared space.

These examples of learned behaviour allowed us to observe patterns. And from those patterns, the team developed five distinct scenarios as lenses for understanding how everyday domestic behaviors might inform more human-centered IoT design. This led to the five design scenarios:

1. How can IoT enable new forms of tangible communication that resonate with the existing materials, tones, and adaptable behaviors of our homes?
2. How can technology move away from being neutral and cold to design for “warmth” to help navigate the unseen rules, rituals, and social behaviors of domestic life?
3. How can we look at new ways of changing how health and fitness is delivered through IoT? Can we explore new relationships between existing domestic objects and rituals, to gather a healthy and mindful perspective on fitness and wellbeing of those we care about?
4. Can physical interfaces for photo sharing balance social behaviors with individual privacy, shaping a "camera of the future" that is tactile rather than digital?
5. How can we view plant and pet-care as cultivating data? What would this data look like? What hopes and fears surround this data?

By rooting our insights into behaviour and interactions, the project highlighted the underlying needs and opportunities of consumers.