Transcript: “I co-created UX advice column UX Agony Aunt” : Ask Me Anything

Today we hosted our good friend Ashlea McKay in our Slack channel for the sole purpose of picking her brain, and pick we did! Ashlea is a UX designer, researcher and writer most famous for her (now not-so-secret) role of UX Agony Aunt.

The session was one of the more intimate that we’ve run (timezones!) but that actually worked in our favour because it was really personal.

It was without a doubt my favourite AMA ever because I managed to hijack the conversation for long enough to talk about cats!

If you didn’t make the session because you didn’t know about it, make sure you join our community to get updates of upcoming sessions. If you have follow up questions for Ash, you can ask them here.

If you’re interested in seeing what we discussed, or you want to revisit your own questions, here is a full transcript of the chat.

 Transcript

hawk

2016-07-07 07:03

So – @ashleamckay has been a member of our community pretty much since we launched, and for that we’re both lucky and grateful

hawk

2016-07-07 07:03

She’s a UX designer, researcher and writer with a background in industrial design

hawk

2016-07-07 07:04

but what we love most about her is the fact that she’s always happy to help anyone with anything

hawk

2016-07-07 07:04

she’s making a name for herself as a UX Agony Aunt (http://ift.tt/296zbYn)

hawk

2016-07-07 07:05

So Ash, over to you (and a huge thanks for your time)

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:05

Hello Everyone! Thank you so much for joining!

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:05

Hi!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:06

As the name of this session suggests, ask me anything!

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:07

I was wondering how you deal with trying to change a users behaviour / mental concept about a product?

hawk

2016-07-07 07:07

(UX related :wink: )

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:07

yes UX related

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:07

haha

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:07

lol

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:07

To explain a bit further, we recently changed our model for our software and have had huge backlash from customers

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:07

oh wow, what luck, I get to participate in this AMA session

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:07

@jacqui_dow5: Great question! Can you tell me more about why the change was made?

hawk

2016-07-07 07:08

@hugofroes: Welcome. We’re literally just kicking off. Jump in with questions at any time. I’ll queue them if nec.

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:09

It was a business decision as SMT level

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:09

at*

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:09

So now we are trying to change it again to make it seem more beneficial to customers

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:10

Our main issue is that the main benefits don’t come until phase 2!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:11

@jacqui_dow5:Yeah that’s not easy. I would recommend doing user resesarch to learn more but also since you’re using a phased approach you could potentially look at rolling out smaller changes over time. Once you put it back, is it possible to give users the option to opt out?

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:11

I’m afraid not :disappointed:

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:12

Although in our brain storming session yesterday we came up with a way to make it appear that users are opting in

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:12

so we are hoping this will help

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:12

@jacqui_dow5: what did you learn from the backlash feedback?

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:13

@jacqui_dow5: also can you test it?

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:14

Yes luckily we have a huge user base and many users are happy to come in and do user testing for us

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:14

@jacqui_dow5: That’s fantastic!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:15

I would also recommend getting some of those SMT people in to observe the testing

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:16

That can help build a shared understanding of user needs

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:16

This question on behalf of Lynne, JC, and Jeremy (who aren’t here): What general advice can you give to people working mostly solo, whether in their organisation, or in parts of the world that don’t have many UX networks yet?

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:16

Get on twitter!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:17

and UX Mastery of course!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:17

Look for interesting people and reach out to them

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:18

What in particular should they be looking for?

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:18

Anything that resonates with them- if you have a particular are of interest like user research, make a list of 10 user researchers you’d like to connect with

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:19

If there’s something you want to learn or if someone writes an article that liked- tell them! :slightly_smiling_face:

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:19

@ashleamckay: how does one take their level of UX from simple “dabbling” to professional level process? How do you measure if you’ve made the transition?

william.roberths

2016-07-07 07:20

has joined #ask-ashlea-mckay

anitab

2016-07-07 07:20

has joined #ask-ashlea-mckay

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:20

@hugofroes: Great question! Immerse yourself in it as much as you can! Are you working in UX right now?

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:21

Yes, I am :slightly_smiling_face:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:21

Fantastic!

hawk

2016-07-07 07:21

@william.roberths: @anitab Welcome! Jump in with questions (any questions!) at any stage. I’ll queue them if it gets busy.

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:21

You’re already well on your way!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:21

Now you need to get your hands on interesting articles

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:21

Meet people

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:21

I started “dabbling” about 3 years ago, but now I’m oficcially a UXer :wink:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:21

Get to conferences

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:22

That’s awesome :slightly_smiling_face:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:22

Hi! Welcome new joiners!

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:22

That idea of knowing where we are in a UX skill/experience spectrum is a common concern for people.

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:23

There was a really cool self assessment sundial thingy

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:23

There seems to be a lot of confusion in general about the difference between a UXer and a UIer

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:23

@lukcha: I think you got me onto it

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:23

Elizabeth Bacon’s thing?

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:23

@lukcha: yes, I for example have 17 years professional experience, but certain UX aspects are much more recent to me

basu

2016-07-07 07:24

has joined #ask-ashlea-mckay

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:24

@jacqui_dow5: Oh yes there is! UX is a methodology and UI is a thing.

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:24

Here’s a link to our take on Elizabeth’s Ux Sundial (with thanks to Thomus Yung): http://ift.tt/1usp1oe

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:24

@lukcha: yes

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:24

it was orange

hawk

2016-07-07 07:24

@basu: Welcome :slightly_smiling_face:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:24

@hugofroes: what are those 17 years in?

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:24

I try and explain it to people like ‘UX you know more about human psychology, user research etc, but UI is looking at design patterns and applying them to a problem’

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:25

I bet there’s something in there you can draw from :wink: @hugofroes

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:25

I don’t know if I’m right but it seems to help other people with seeing the difference

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:25

@jacqui_dow5: if it works- go with it :slightly_smiling_face:

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:26

@ashleamckay: 8 as a Graphic Designer, The rest has been a start as a web designer – head of digital crativity and strategy

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:26

now UX

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:26

Nick wants to know: Where do you think the most time can be saved in UX projects? Lots of UXers are pressured for time but unsure of how to prioritise things.

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:26

@ashleamckay: so much :wink:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:26

@hugofroes: All very valuable and all part of UX :grinning:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:27

@lukcha: I love the IDEO thing of failing often and succeeding sooner

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:28

@ashleamckay: what is your opinion on the rise of product design, that includes UX? Am I wrong in assuming that UX is almost a principal rather than just a process, and so it’s natural that it becomes part of a job rather

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:29

and testing early and much as possible saves a ton of time in the duration of the project because you get it right sooner

basu

2016-07-07 07:29

hi

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:29

@hugofroes: I’m an industrial designer which is product design and it follows a user centris process

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:29

products aren;’t just things- they deliver experiences

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:30

hi @basu welcome!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:30

To me, UX is an overarching methodology that emcompasses many fields

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:31

and is all about delivering great experiences for humans

ellieisobelle

2016-07-07 07:31

has joined #ask-ashlea-mckay

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:31

@ashleamckay: ok, we’re on the same page then :wink:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:31

sweet!

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:32

@ashleamckay: how do you approach user testing, research etc.? I often find it can be complicated deciding which test to do

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:32

@hugofroes: case by case approach

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:33

I work really closely with BAs and find that between the research and analysis they do, and my skills in UI we are a UX team, is there anything more I should be doing on top of the user research and product analysis that they have done?

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:33

it depends on what I’m doing

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:33

how much time

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:33

how much money

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:33

and what I need from it

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:33

there’s so many to choose from and it can seem really tricky! But considering those things will help narrow it down :slightly_smiling_face:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:34

@jacqui_dow5: build good relationships with devs

hawk

2016-07-07 07:34

@ellieisobelle: Welcome. :slightly_smiling_face: Jump in with questions at any stage.

anitab

2016-07-07 07:34

Hi everyone! Quick question … What makes a good portfolio esp if your starting out in the industry?

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:34

ideally they should be part of your team too but if not build that connection :slightly_smiling_face:

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:35

Yes, we always have a task to do a technical discussion with the devs and involve them in the design process

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:35

@anitab: Hello! So I’m actually not a fan of portfolios

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:35

I worry that I’m missing a large part of UX as I tend to work straight from requirements and go straight into paper prototyping / wireframing

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:36

@jacqui_dow5: content is really important

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:36

but I think the BAs do an amazing job with the requirement gathering and research side of things

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:36

they do – we love BAs!

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:37

From David: “How do you find robust inspiration for a new design approach without scrolling through Pinterest or CSS inspiration sites?” He says he struggles when a project doesn’t have any colour palette or basic design guidelines. Jumping from knowing ‘what’ to design to designing something usable AND attractive seems very airy-fairy and unpredictable.

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:37

@anitab: the reason being, it’s the relationships that matter

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:37

For David: I sketch

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:37

like on paper

anitab

2016-07-07 07:38

Thanks @ashleamckay & I agree.

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:38

I just start sketching and trying out ideas – i keep it very basic and I don’t go anywhere near colour etc

huckledust

2016-07-07 07:38

@ashleamckay: why do you not like portfolios? I agree to a certain extent, just interested to hear why? :grinning:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:39

@huckledust: Of course! :slightly_smiling_face: You’re a person not a collection of work. The big thing they look for when they’re hiring you is – do you fit in with their culture?

dean

2016-07-07 07:39

It depends on what your view of a portfolio is. If it’s just full of UI shots then it’s terrible (unless you’re a UI designer), if it describes the problem, the paths explored, and analyses the end result then a portfolio is important.

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:40

I feel that you can communicate your thought processes through conversation and interview processes like design tasks

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:42

Following up on David’s question: Does iterative sketching lead to the personality of the site coming through somehow? How does it click?

huckledust

2016-07-07 07:42

@ashleamckay: thanks! Def agree. And so often it’s had to show what bits of the project were yours and where you contributed…if it is a big team job

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:43

@ashleamckay: , building on @anitab question. Even without a portfolio, how would you suggest showcasing your capabilities or what you can bring to the table? I’ve heard it’s good to have a description of your process, wheras other suggest just a journal/blog

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:43

@lukcha: for David- for me it does! :slightly_smiling_face: It’s a chance for me to get all my ideas out and make them real (on paper at least) which leads to more brainstorming and kind of snow balls from there

uxsos

2016-07-07 07:43

has joined #ask-ashlea-mckay

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:43

@hugofroes: yep :slightly_smiling_face: blogging is awesome! that’s what I did!

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:44

Something I have found which has really helped is having a passionate CV! Talk about how you love what you do, explain how it changes the way you look at every day objects and experiences

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:44

Then in the interview let the passion come through again

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:44

@huckledust: exactly! and everything we do is a team effort we rarely design in isolation and it

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:44

I would have to agree with @jacqui_dow5

jacqui_dow5

2016-07-07 07:44

My last 2 jobs, I asked afterwards why they hired me and both times it was because I was passionate and eager to learn

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:44

and that’s a good thing!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:45

@jacqui_dow5: Agree! Make it human!

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:45

If anyone ever want to see my site, PM me :wink:

anitab

2016-07-07 07:46

Seems the portfolio is just to get you in the front door… equal emphasis is to network and build positive relationships between jobs.

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:46

@hugofroes: send it to me after- I’ll have a look for you :slightly_smiling_face:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:46

@anitab: that’s right- you spend something like 2/3 of your life at work!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:47

it’s the humans that matter

hawk

2016-07-07 07:47

and cats

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:47

yes!

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:47

haha!

anitab

2016-07-07 07:47

Hahah

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:47

Michael asked us: “There is waaaay too much information to keep up with. too many competing points of view and ‘best-practices’. How do I know what is worth learning or not?”

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:47

I have a cat named Wednesday

hawk

2016-07-07 07:48

I have a cat named Dr John Hawk and another one named Furry

hawk

2016-07-07 07:48

“several people are typing” :wink:

anitab

2016-07-07 07:48

:sweat_smile: can named Wednesday! :heart:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:48

@lukcha: yeah there’s heaps! I skim read and if I like it, I read properly

anitab

2016-07-07 07:48

Cat

huckledust

2016-07-07 07:48

My cat is Dusty

hawk

2016-07-07 07:48

Really? What’s its name?

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:48

She’s black and has yellow eyes- I named her after Wednesday Addams :slightly_smiling_face:

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:48

I don’t have a cat. :worried:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:49

That is awesome!

dean

2016-07-07 07:49

Well this AMA took an interesting turn :wink:

hawk

2016-07-07 07:49

Wow, I’ve really hijacked this session :wink:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:49

you have chickens right? @lukcha

dean

2016-07-07 07:49

hahah

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:49

@dean: the cat lady is out of the bag

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:49

I do. They’re not quite as cuddly tho.

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:50

@ashleamckay: @lukcha I have a sugesstion… I use twitter to share articles I’m interested in and then I have a IFTTT setup that put’s those tweets ina Google Drive spreadsheet. I can then do a quick search if I ever need a specific subject, but that way I hav a repository of the articles even if I don’t have the time to read them

dean

2016-07-07 07:51

Do you get around to read them though @hugofroes ?

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:51

That’s a brilliant idea.

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:51

@hugofroes: that’s a great idea!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:51

love it!

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:51

@dean, the ones that spark my interest I read, the ones that seem somewhat intersting I skim through

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:51

I do something similar with Evernote, but I might move to Google Drive now that they’re changing the pricing.

ellieisobelle

2016-07-07 07:51

@ashleamckay: what are your thoughts on basing design decisions on “best practice” – where by “best practice” is an article on Medium

dean

2016-07-07 07:52

I used to save articles in Stache, but then found out that I just save articles and never get around to read them. I now use Omnifocus to say “Read this article – link”, and set a date to make sure it’s done – it’s more time consuming to do, but I find it makes me get around to reading them

m1ketayl0r

2016-07-07 07:52

has joined #ask-ashlea-mckay

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:53

@dean, a good way of skimming is going through the headers of the article :wink: Gives me a good overview… if it’s well done :stuck_out_tongue:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:53

@ellieisobelle: ooh – I primarily design based on what the user needs and balance that with business reqs and tech constraints. Best practice is a great guide and starting point but I feel that it should come down to each individual project

huckledust

2016-07-07 07:53

@lukcha: I didn’t know Evernote pricing was changing. :thinking_face: thanks will look it up

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:54

Medium is a great source of info- but users are the source of truth :slightly_smiling_face:

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:54

@huckledust: http://ift.tt/293uaiX

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:54

@dean: @hugofroes You guys are awesome!

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:54

@ashleamckay: do you have a ux checklist for heuristic evaluations?

huckledust

2016-07-07 07:55

Thx @lukcha

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:55

@hugofroes: I tend to stick with the Nielsen ones but I like flexibility so I might also add a few extras depending on what I’m doing

hawk

2016-07-07 07:56

Hey guys, we have about 5 mins left in the session. If you’re sitting on a question, now is the time to ask!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:56

http://ift.tt/1UbzJcj

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:56

Wow that went fast!

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:56

Thanks @ashleamckay, had not found this one yet :wink: I’m trying to put together a mix of various checklists for one that best suits me

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:56

Nice one!

huckledust

2016-07-07 07:57

Thanks @ashleamckay @hawk and @lukcha great way to spend my train ride home!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:57

Thanks for joining!

ellieisobelle

2016-07-07 07:57

Dieter Rams: ten principles for good design is also a good one

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:57

Great way to start my day :smile:

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:57

great to have you here @huckledust :slightly_smiling_face:

anitab

2016-07-07 07:57

Agreed. Thanks so much for hosting this :+1:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:58

@ellieisobelle: I haven’t seen that one- will have to look that up! :slightly_smiling_face:

nicolkosky

2016-07-07 07:58

Thank you so much! This was so informative :slightly_smiling_face:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:58

You’re all very welcome! I had a great time!

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:58

Can’t believe how fast that went!

lukcha

2016-07-07 07:58

You’re a star, Ash :slightly_smiling_face:

hugofroes

2016-07-07 07:58

went way too fast :stuck_out_tongue:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:59

If you have any further questions you can always find me on the UX Mastery community forums!

hawk

2016-07-07 07:59

thanks SO much Ash, for your time

hawk

2016-07-07 07:59

really appreciated

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 07:59

Thanks for organising! @hawk @lukcha

hawk

2016-07-07 08:00

If you have follow up questions, here is the place to ask http://ift.tt/29mMWya

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 08:03

Signing off now- thanks again everyone!

hugofroes

2016-07-07 08:04

THANKS @ashleamckay

hawk

2016-07-07 08:05

Thanks to all of you. Have a great morning/afternoon/evening

hawk

2016-07-07 08:06

@hawk uploaded a file:

ashleamckay

2016-07-07 08:07

@ashleamckay uploaded a file:

nicolkosky

2016-07-07 08:08

haha :joy:

lukcha

2016-07-07 08:08

@lukcha uploaded a file:

hawk

2016-07-07 08:08

best transcript ever!

The post Transcript: “I co-created UX advice column UX Agony Aunt” : Ask Me Anything appeared first on UX Mastery.

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11 Seriously Creative Ways to Use IoT for Marketing

Imagine you’re walking around Restoration Hardware when you spot it: the dining room table of your dreams. It’s unique, extremely well-made—and just too expensive to buy right that second. So, you find the big red “Pin It” button on top of the table, press it, and move on. Pressing that button just saved the table to your Pinterest board; tonight, you’ll look at it again and decide whether it’s worth the price tag.

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Sound a little far-fetched? Well, this hypothetical scenario isn’t actually hypothetical. Pinterest and Tok&Stok, a Brazilian furniture retailer, partnered on an in-store campaign that lets shoppers save physical products to their digital accounts with, well, the push of a pin.

There’s an obvious difficulty. If you push the “Pin It” button on your dream table, and then I walk up three minutes later and push the button again, the button must not only recognize that two different people activated it—but also know which two people, so it can save the table to our respective Pinterest accounts.

The answer comes to us from IoT technology. Each pin uses a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon to communicate with nearby consumer smartphones, telling it exactly who’s in the vicinity.

When it comes to the Internet of Things, this use case is just the beginning. Let’s explore how IoT will impact how products are marketed and sold.

Beacons

Beacons (or, small, wireless devices that send out signals with their unique IDs) are every marketer’s best friend. No, really: not only do they have an unbelievably long list of potential uses, but they give us accurate, comprehensive, nuanced data.

Just like a website heat map tells you what’s grabbing your user’s attention and what’s being ignored, beacon technology can tell you where in your store shoppers are lingering and where they’re rushing. Since you’re getting this information for individuals, you can combine it with other customer data to build incredibly accurate and granular consumer profiles. As an example, you might discover that the average man in his mid–30s spends three minutes in the produce aisle, while the average woman in her mid–30s spends five minutes.

You can collect meta-data as well. For instance, a major clothing store installed beacons in 20 of its locations around the San Francisco Bay Area to track which zip codes consumers were coming from. At the end of four months, the store identified its highest and lowest-density areas.

That brings us to the second use case: data optimization. The clothing retailer used the zip code data to focus its bus advertising on the highest-density neighborhoods; plus, it identified instances where stores were drawing large numbers of customers from a distant zip code, opening the door for future openings.

Beacon technology also lets you send people extremely customized notifications. That’s how Target is doing things: shoppers who opt in to the beacon experience (by downloading an app) get push notifications based on where they are in the store, their personal consumer profile, and product info. Imagine a teenage girl walks into the shoe section. Her previous purchases suggest she likes athletic shoes in the $40 to $60 range, so Target sends her a 10% coupon for a nearby pair of $50 sneakers.

When Hillshire Brands rolled out a similar campaign for its American Craft sausages, purchase intent and brand awareness increased by 20% and 36%, respectively.

That brings us to my favorite beacon use case: giving your customers a good time. That’s how Rockbot, a virtual jukebox that lets customers request songs at restaurants, hotels, and gyms, used beacons. After analyzing historic listening patterns to figure out which songs its users liked best, the platform would automatically play those songs when the consumers walked into its partner venues. Picture this: you open the door to your fitness studio, and your favorite pump-up song starts blasting. Pretty awesome, right?

(And while the ROI of this use case might seem less obvious, there’s a lot of research proving that the physical environment can be as or more important than the product when it comes to driving sales.)

Geofencing

There’s a good chance you already use geofencing in your day-to-day life. Maybe you’ve got an important errand to run the next morning, so you set up a reminder in Evernote, Apple Reminders, or Todoist to go off when you leave the house. Or perhaps you’ve enabled your phone to go on Mute when you arrive at the office.

These digital recipes use geofences, or “virtual fences placed around a physical location”. Every time a person enters or exits the defined area, a programmed action takes place.

You might assume beacons and geofences would conflict with each other, but they’re actually compatible technologies. Since you can define beacon signals down to the centimeter, they’re optimal for incredibly precise interactions. Geofences, on the other hand, can range from 50 meters to the entire city.

Continue reading %11 Seriously Creative Ways to Use IoT for Marketing%

by Aja Frost via SitePoint

Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi GPIO Pins in Node.js

The Internet of Things is all the rage right now. There are so many ideas we can put into action in the realm of physical computing, it is easy to be drawn into the idea of programming the world we live in! Once you have a Raspberry Pi and a breadboard, what's next?

In this article, we will explore how to access the GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi using Node.js. With the GPIO pins, you can program the hardware directly. JavaScript APIs make this seamless. The APIs are abstractions to common techniques, and they are available from anywhere. The Node.js interpreter runs in a single process which opens up ways to write this code in a way that it is testable. The most exciting part for me is that you can write unit tests, hit breakpoints and examine code just like any other JavaScript program, all from your computer.

Let's get started.

What Is GPIO?

GPIO stands for General Purpose Input / Output. They are the pins found on the side of the Raspberry Pi, next to the yellow video out socket. Below is what they look like.

[caption id="attachment_134480" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Source: Raspberry Pi[/caption]

Think of them as the way you connect to the outside world from the Pi. This enables you to write programs that do not run on a computer screen. Each pin acts like a switch that you turn on or off. You can receive input from the physical world, or send output. Basic boards come with 26 pins, and 9 of those pins are power or ground pins. The ground pins are at the end of each circuit that the current has to flow through. The more recent Raspberry Pi boards come with an extra set of 14 pins.

If you are interested in more details on the GPIO pins, this online diagram gives you all you need to understand what each pin is for. There are a myriad number of pins for input / output and ground. These pins are the foundation of physical computing. Depending on your goal, you can use as many as you need.

Mock the fs!

I know what you are thinking, what the heck is fs and why do I care? In Unix-like operating systems, a device file is a driver that looks like a file. In laymenʼs terms, a device driver is a file! Guess what? GPIO APIs are wrappers that read or write to a device file. The file system APIs are concepts that may already be familiar to you. If you have never worked with files in Node.js, I recommend going over the fs module and file systems in Node.js. fs is shorthand for "file system" and enables you to read or write to a plain old file. There is nothing fancy here, all we do is writeFile(), for example, and let GPIO handle the rest. The trick is to know what to write on which file.

There is a handy little npm package called mock-fs that will help us with unit tests. With this library, one can dream up any file on the file system and mock it in memory. What is so radical is we are only dealing with files, thatʼs all we need to do. In a Unix-like system, GPIO behaves like any other plain old file. This gives us freedom on how we can approach this solution.

The crux of the mock-fs library is the mock({}) function. It takes in a single parameter which is a JavaScript object. Inside this parameter, one can dream up whatever file you want. The beauty here is that this all runs in memory, so you can go crazy with unit tests. The interpreter runs in a single process, this means one can override the fs module at runtime. JavaScript is a dynamic language, so we are free to mock any module available to the current process.

Continue reading %Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi GPIO Pins in Node.js%

by Camilo Reyes via SitePoint