The smart home market is booming. An increasing number of devices around houses are connecting to networks, with affordable sensors enabling constant expansion. If you're developing platforms or other software products for this space, it's important to find a niche — something that will help your releases stand out and capture a share of the audience.
While many brands lean on convenience and novelty as the main traits of their smart home offerings, there's another potentially overlooked trait that could become your critical differentiator: accessibility.
Accessible design in software products is a notable trend for 2024, but not all smart home providers are putting enough focus on this aspect of the user experience (UX). With approximately 12 million people in the U.S. experiencing some vision impairment and around 37.5 million American adults dealing with hearing loss, it's clear that there is a need for accessibility as a design consideration.
So, could foregrounding accessibility be the competitive edge your brand needs?
The software powering common smart home platforms and components may not be tuned to the needs of all users. This lack of accessible options could hinder greater adoption of smart home devices — and demonstrates an opportunity for new entrants to the market.
Multiple aspects of smart home software might prove inaccessible for some users, including voice-activated features and touchscreens.
Creating devices controllable via voice command has become a common goal for software developers. In light of generative AI's rapid development, the race is on to create highly responsive chatbots and virtual assistants that can communicate in natural language. Some users, however, may be left behind by voice-only interfaces.
Speech difficulties caused by conditions such as ALS and Parkinson's disease may make it difficult for individuals to reliably issue voice commands their devices will understand. Smart home components including thermostats and lights that treat verbal commands as the default interaction method can leave these people out.
Health conditions aren't the only reason audio interfaces might not recognize users' voices. Some devices don't work well with strong accents or dialects, causing friction and frustration. In other cases, users simply won't want to speak — for instance, if they have children sleeping nearby or don't want to disturb roommates in shared housing.
Add in the fact that voice interfaces' audio replies may be inaudible to people with hearing loss and it's clear some scenarios are incompatible with solely verbal smart home controls.
Touchscreen controls are another standard form of interface — more common than voice activation — that may not accommodate all users' needs. For example, a touchscreen that doesn't support verbal screen readers or tactile feedback is hard to navigate for an individual experiencing low vision or blindness.
In addition to those who can't see what's displayed on the screens, users who can't easily make precise gestures may also struggle to use touchscreens. People with conditions such as arthritis, cerebral palsy or hand tremors might find it difficult or impossible to make precise gestures in a small area, making some touchscreens inaccessible.
Cognitive impairments can also interfere with users' ability to operate touchscreens. Contemporary touch interfaces may involve numerous complex buttons, making them potentially confusing.
The fact that some of the most common smart device interfaces are not universally accessible comes with troubling implications for the sector. The overall goal of the smart home movement is to make operating household systems smoother and more convenient, but a significant percentage of the population is being left behind. Manufacturers are also missing out on a large segment of their potential market.
Embracing inclusive design principles from the beginning can mark your brand as a new kind of smart home platform provider, one that can reach a wider swath of the market. This is a way to align yourself with the social promise of smart home development, namely that you will make life easier.
Inclusive product design begins with considering how people of diverse ages, abilities, cultural backgrounds and levels of technological literacy will interact with your products. By introducing simple interfaces, a wide range of customization options and adaptable features, you can reach numerous people who may have difficulty with less accessible options.
The goal of inclusive design isn't to create multiple solutions each aimed at specific audiences. Rather, your designs for inclusive smart home interfaces should incorporate features that will allow them to help the most diverse group of users possible.
When you're designing solutions specifically with accessibility in mind, you can apply user-centric design principles to attain useful results. This means performing frequent testing with diverse groups of users and actively incorporating their feedback into your interface designs to meet their needs.
You can take cues from international accessibility standards when creating features and interface components. One of the most relevant sets of guidelines for these purposes is the current version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
WCAG 2.2 is based on four core principles. To reach the widest possible audience, content should be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. By following through on each of these concepts, you can measure the relative success of your designs:
Being perceivable means users can interpret the information in front of them. At a base level, you can achieve this effect by using colors that have a strong contrast, using alt-text that describes images and making sure the software is compatible with verbal screen reader tools, so visually impaired users can receive an overview of its contents.
By adding customizable palettes and patterns that differentiate various colors, you can compensate for users' color vision deficiencies. The best overall answer may be an adaptive interface setup, allowing users to control many parts of the experience, from font to color scheme and layout. Large-scale interface changes to suit different abilities can be a defining part of your platform.
Under WCAG guidelines, an operable system is one where users don't encounter impediments that stop them from using all the solution's features and functionality. This can mean offering more than one interface if the standard mode of interaction — for example, an onscreen keyboard — doesn't work for all potential users.
A multi-modal interaction style, one that allows users to switch between modes on the fly, allows you to achieve this goal of operability. Input options can include:
An understandable user interface is one that is easy to comprehend. Rather than overcomplicating output or concealing information from users, this type of interface enables simple navigation and lets users know what's happening with minimal friction, even when errors occur.
The controls and overall layout of your platform should be simple, as should the language used in your menus and error messages. Consistency should be a major priority, with navigation working the same throughout the platform so users don't become confused or disoriented.
It's important to think of users with cognitive impairments or limited technological experience when determining whether your design is understandable. Testing with groups of users who have differing levels of tech skill and cognitive abilities can help you get firsthand data in this regard.
A robust system means one that is accessible to a wide array of user agents, meaning the technologies people use when accessing and interacting with your technology. Your application, for instance, should work with a wide variety of browsers, operating systems and accessibility tools like screen readers.
Going beyond the WCAG standards and adding additional options can help you mark your brand as a true leader in the smart home field. These can include:
When it's time to update your platform with these smart home accessibility features and more, you can turn to experts with a history in the smart home space to provide their insights and expertise. This collaboration is a way to expand your knowledge base and deliver results that will elevate your brand.
Addressing the lack of accessibility in some corners of the smart home market can become a rallying call for your brand, one that may help you achieve an increased profile and a wider audience by providing a truly helpful service. Inclusive UX design can become a differentiator when done right — in-depth customization options open up your products to any and all users.
Transcenda's experts can work side-by-side with your internal team as you add more accessibility and related functionality to your products, improving your overall design and development processes through insights and hands-on action.
We've found notable success in the smart home space already, as demonstrated by our work with Savant Cync, Savant Pro or August Home. To see what our team can offer your project, contact us.
