I have just finished reading Designing Multi Device experiences by Michal Levin (O’Reilly), which I believe should be a mandatory read for every Digital Product Designer. The book gives an elegant design framework coined as 3C for making applications for a multi-device world, one where Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a reality. Before we dive in, let’s look at this info-graph from Google, which provides a window into this multi-screen world:
Perhaps you are convinced that you need a multi-device design strategy. How do you go about it? That's where 3C framework comes handy.
3C stands for Consistent, Continuous, and Complementary
Consistent Design: The core features of the app are replicated across all the devices. Usually there are adjustments made to the layout and user elements to account for the screen size (form factor), though it can also involve the Information Architecture.
Example: Google Maps, Mashable
Designer Responsibility: To think about what core experiences should be portable across all the devices, and what features should be customized for individual device type.
Continuous Design: This addresses the situation where the user can start a task on one device, and carry it on to another. Tasks can be Single Activity Flow or Sequential Activity Flow. Single Activity is where the user completes the same task across multiple devices. Sequential Activity is multiple tasks are executed on separate devices to meet the overall goal.
Example: Single Activity: Reading a book on Kindle tablet and continue listening to it on Audible.com on smartphone. Sequential Activity: Registering for an event through Eventbrite on laptop, using the mobile app to find direction to the venue, and browsing for the programmes on tablet, while at the event.
Designer Responsibility: To divide the consumer experience into granular tasks, mapping out which task is best suited for which device, and implementing accordingly.
Complementary Design: Scenario where two or more devices complement each other in completing the user activity. It can be of two types: Collaboration and Control. Collaborating devices play equal role in providing user experience, whereas in Control mode one device controls one or more other devices.
Example: Collaboration: Scrabble game where tablet is used as game board and smartphone hold the tiles. Control: Smartphone that serves as a remote control for the TV.
Designer Responsibility: To develop a framework where devices are used in complementary way to enhance the user experience, with each device being sensitive to the context (time of the day, presence of other device etc.) in which it is used.
The elegance of 3C framework is that it readily extends to the IoT age where everyday devices such as fridge, microwave, thermostat will be connected to the Internet. The designer can use the above approaches (individually or combined) to provide a seamless consumer experience across multiple devices. Having said that, the key challenge to make devices talk to one another would be to agree on common standards, which can take years (if not decades) to materialize. The problem is compounded by the fact that companies are opting for walled ecosystem approach: Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
The author also highlights the fact that the “there is an app for that” approach would not be sustainable in the IoT age. We already are getting overwhelmed with those icons on our phone screen; just imagine the problem when you have hundreds of machines connected to the ecosystem and there is an app for each of them, and multiple variations of those apps for multiple user devices! She proposes an approach called One Ecosystem Heart, where a single fluid entity is running across all the devices, one that adapts itself to the different contextual needs placed on the devices by users, Once the heart is up and beating on one device, it pumps the blood through all the relevant ecosystem vessels. Beautiful, isn’t it?
