Designing Developer Experiences for the Internet of Things

The Problem: 

In order to create a successful product, our hardware client needed to better understand the next generation of developers.

The next wave of hardware-based security for Internet of Things Devices has the potential to create a much-needed level of "baked-in" security for user data – if Developers can use it.  We worked with the client's IOT group to learn about generalist web developers' mental models for understanding and implementing security solutions.

What Did we Do? 

We worked with the product team to test an early iteration of a new developer product, and used our data to inform the development of design principles and best practices for improving developer experience.

Collaborating with the product team, we developed protocol for a user study combining participatory observation and usability test elements. Our solution focused on implementing security solutions, improving documentation and a simple, but not simplistic means for walking new IoT developers through their implementation.

RESULTS:

We conducted iterative usability tests with 10 users, generating baseline metrics for improving usability, engagement and performance.  From there, we delivered targeted product and feature-level improvements along with strategy and design principles for Developer Experience, including the Developer Experience Manifesto above. 

PROJECT ELEMENTS: 

Usability Testing, Baseline Metrics, Content Strategy, Documentation, Information Architecture, Product Roadmap