Design for Living with Smart Products

As more connected products are launched and kickstarted daily, it’s clear that homes have become a new data factory for entrepreneurs, designers, and developers. But most of these products are based on the assumption that efficiency is the main goal of domestic life. In this O’Reilly report, you’ll explore why and how smart home products also need to fit into the contextual and cultural environment—the experiences and rituals—of our everyday lives.

Author Simone Rebaudengo explores ways that designers can find the right balance between control and automation. How can culture and context help you design connected-product behaviors that fit our lives rather than change them? This report looks at the possibilities.

• Explore "smart" homes of the past, the technological dream, and promises of automation
• Consider examples of today’s smart home products, including the pitfalls of today’s metaphors and interfaces
• Peer under the hood of "smartness" and learn to think of agency and algorithms as new design materials
• Learn how to "domesticate" smart products and understand why it’s essential to design relationships rather than just connectivity