From Ideation to Prototyping of IoT Systems: The Case of Smart Cities

• Main Author: Gianni, Francesco Valerio
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English

Interacting with computers, for work or for leisure, originally required humans to speak the language of the machine, intended as interaction techniques, languages and procedures that are closer to how a computer works rather than how the human brain functions. Nowadays, despite the wide availability of computers, this gap is still present. It is now easier to use computers; however, programming even simple applications is still a task approachable only through complex jargon, which has little in common with the final scope of the application. By addressing the Internet of Things (IoT), we found that this situation is complicated by the involvement of electronics, microcontrollers and low-level programming languages. Specific professional skills are often required to develop and prototype IoT applications. Research on human-computer interaction (HCI) addresses the challenges of interconnecting people and computers, building tools and theories to facilitate the many uses that a computer can have, in an open-ended dialogue. Thanks to research in this field, new solutions and interaction strategies allowed us to improve user experience when dealing with computers. However, owing to the complexity of the field, in IoT, it is still challenging to keep humans in the loop, in terms of both the development of IoT applications and their use. Speci_c branches in HCI aim to facilitate the programming phase of computer applications; however, despite being simple, such process still requires the user to have some non-trivial technical skills and an understanding of the basic logical constructs common to most programming languages. In this thesis, I address how to empower new audiences in brainstorming, designing, programming and prototyping applications for IoT. Already established research fields, such as end-user development (EUD), HCI, interaction design (ID) and software engineering, have already investigated some of these challenges. In this thesis, I will restrict the domain to a specific subset of IoT applications based on tangible user interfaces (TUIs) and smart objects, covering the phases of brainstorming and design of such applications. Particular focus will be placed on promoting smart city learning (SCL) through the IoT applications envisioned. SCL explores how citizens can be actively involved in a learning process that occurs in the city, making use of its data and services, in order to increase awareness and lifelong learning. The SCL application domai