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Getting Started with Watson IoT Edge Gateways

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Abstract

In the IoT Edge hands-on lab, you will learn about the steps to configure and connect a Raspberry Pi device to run as an IoT Edge Gateway connected to the Watson IoT Platform. You will also learn about the distribution of Data Management and custom Edge Service workloads to the IoT Edge Gateway. These workloads will perform filtering, transformation, and analytics on edge sensor data events.
As a lab attendee, you will explore the user experience in working with IoT Edge Gateways and provide your feedback on the design of this preview 2 beta capability.

Lab presentation

Think2018_DevZoneLab4966-IoTEdge

Lab handbook

Think2018_DevZoneLab4966-IoTEdge-LabHandbook

Post-lab instructions

The content of this lab can use used in your IoT Platform organization. Use these post-Think 2018 instructions.

Think2018_DevZoneLab4966-IoTEdge-LabHandbook-PostThink2018

 

 



Download lab presentation


Download lab handbook


Download instructions to run the lab post-Think 2018 


Download Raspberry Pi SD Card Image (1.16GB)


Download Source Code (Zip)

IoT Edge Design

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In 2018 I delivered a design on the IoT Edge developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

What is IoT Edge?

Edge devices generally live on the edge of the network within an enterprise. They are specific hardware sensors, industrial controllers, or other industrial devices residing on private or potentially proprietary networks at a physical location.

Edge devices are creating quite a challenge for systems integrators since most are generally building cloud-based applications which rely on receiving information from IoT devices to accomplish the business goal.

There are many challenges that exist in developing a path for this information flow, including

  • Latency vs Time
  • Quality vs Time
  • Bandwidth and Cost
  • Security and Vulnerability
  • Compliance
  • Maintenance and operations

 

Read more about my design research on the IoT Edge experience in the Watson IoT Platform


Design Research on IoT Edge
Design research on the IoT Edge experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Hills

The Hills for IoT Edge may be viewed as a stack of capabilities that deliver value to the Business and the Solution.

“Chris, an IoT application developer, can develop and deploy applications that are transparent to the instrumentation of devices at the edge”
Hill 1 formulates the transparency of IoT Edge to solution development.
“Devon, an IoT Edge developer, can develop workloads for the edge using common cloud programming models, and automate workload distribution, management and updates on Edge Gateways”
Hill 2 expresses the WOW on adopting new Cloud programming models for the IoT Edge and moving away from the constraints of monolithic FW.
“Dave, an IoT Ecosystem Partner, can deliver IoT Gateway products with edge capabilities, managed by the IoT Edge”
Hill 3 that states the value to the partner ecosystem to leverage the IoT Edge as a platform for delivering edge-based services by shipping on or shipping with.

Design Vision

Chris, the IoT Application developer, can develop code to work with state and conditions of manageable assets, without knowledge of individual instrumentation, data workload distribution, or network connection state.

Using IoT Edge, Chris can

  • Create Edge Gateway types, select IoT Edge capabilities, and register Gateways, using the IoT Platform UI and APIs
  • Provision IoT Core capabilities to IoT Edge gateways
  • Distribute Data Management workloads to the edge to Filter Messages and Compute Device Device State and submit State Change Events
  • Connect devices to the Gateway to Ingest, Store and Forward MQTT messages
  • Develop and deliver cloud applications, independently of changes made to the edge instrumentation

Devon the IoT Edge developer, can develop workloads for the edge using common cloud programming models, and automatically distribute, manage and update workloads on Edge Gateways.

Using IoT Edge, Devon can

  • Create, build and upload custom containers to the IoT Edge component registry
  • Provision, Update and Manage custom containers on IoT Edge Gateways
  • Use the local MQTT message bus in IoT Core, to integrate messaging across custom containers, devices, and cloud
  • Create and test Cloud Functions on the cloud and configure as edge followers to run at the edge
  • Create aggregation of devices into Things
  • Create Rules and Actions, using Device and Thing state, and distribute as workloads to the edge

UX design

The User Experience of IoT Edge has three major parts

  • IoT Edge extensions to Watson IoT Platform Gateway Types
  • IoT Edge extensions to Watson IoT Platform Gateways
  • New IoT Edge Services

Developers will use existing concepts of IoT Platform Gateway Types. By choosing the option to make a Gateway an IoT Edge Gateway, developers get access to additional capabilities when defining a gateway type. The new capabilities are introduced together with the existing gateway properties or added as new tabs.

When adding a new Edge Gateway Type, a developer will create a gateway type, select the Edge option, and then choose the hardware architecture for gateways of this type. The options are Intelx86, ARM32, ARM64.

The developer can also optionally select Edge Services that will run on gateways of this type. The developer can browse the Edge Service Catalog for a list of services and available versions for gateways of this architecture. The latest version is shown by default. Alternatively, a different version can be viewed and selected.

For developers that want to get an overview of available Edge Services, the Edge Service Catalog is available for browsing and exploring the Docker images that have been configured for a service.

Link
IoT Edge Design
Extensions to IoT Platform gateways for optional IoT Edge capabilities.
Link
IoT Edge Design
Adding an Edge Service from the Edge Service Catalog to an IoT Edge Gateway.
Link
IoT Edge Design
Browsing Edge Service in the Edge Service Catalog.

Design flows

The following screen flows demonstrate the user experience design in IoT Edge Preview 2.

Developer flow to create a new IoT Edge Gateway and configure Edge Services.

 

Developer flow to view the state of a running IoT Edge Gateway and its Edge Servcies

 

Developer flow to browse Edge Services in the Edge Service Catalog

IoT Edge Preview 2 Production Design

The following screen flows demonstrate the production design in IoT Edge Preview 2

Creating a new IoT Edge Gateway.

 

Browsing Edge Service in the Edge Service Catalog.

Related Designs

New designs are emerging in the Watson IoT Platform for IoT Edge.

Explore more information on the existing designs for Watson IoT Platform for IoT Edge.


Design Research on IoT Edge
Design research on the IoT Edge experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Getting Started with IoT Edge
DevZone Lab at Think 2018 on IoT Edge using Preview 2 Beta.

ChrisDevon

Meet Chris is the Application Developer and Devon is the Edge Device Developer. 

Chris and Devon are the most frequently used personas in the developer experience design across the platform capabilities.


IoT Platform Developer Experience
Design research on the developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Getting Started with IoT Edge
DevZone Lab at Think 2018 on IoT Edge using Preview 2 Beta.

Getting Started with Watson IoT Platform Data Management

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Abstract

In this lab, you will learn how to get started with the IoT Platform and use Data Management to transform and normalize data from connected devices. Using Data Management, you can define event type schemas for your device messages and create interfaces that define abstractions, and compute the state of your devices.

Think2018_DevZoneLab4990-GettingStartedWithDataManagement

 

 



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Device Activity Policy Design

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In 2017 I contributed to the design research and design concepts for Device Activity Policy for Risk and Security Management in the Watson IoT Platform.

What is Device Activity

Device Activity is an indicator of device health. In the Design Research on IoT Device Activity, it was proven that Time since the last message is a preferred metric on device activity and health. This new design for the Watson IoT Platform provides a new Risk and Security Management policy that defines the expected messaging activity for devices connected to the IoT platform. The policy monitors whether a device sends a request at least once every defined time period. A threshold for device activity can be defined generally for all devices, and exceptions defined for individual device types. Compliance with the Device Activity policy can be monitored on the dashboard, or reported on using drill-in reports.

Design Vision

The design vision for the new Device Activity policy is to call with the concepts already established for Risk and Security Management policers in the Watson IoT Platform. Learn more about the common design policies in Risk and Security Management Design. The new policy should be available in the Security section in the platform, next to other policies. The policy should have a simple default setting that applies generally across devices on the platform. This policy should set clear a clear threshold on the expended frequency of messages arriving from healthy devices exhibiting an active behavior. The policy should also allow exceptions to be set individually for any device type that differs from a default general policy. As an option, the threshold value may be set indefinitely to disable checking and make any devices of a type compliant.  

Using compliance reporting, administrators and operators may identify any devices that exhibit unhealthy behavior. Drill-in reports allow users to view device status and perform diagnostic actions.   

Personas

Risk and Security Management is primarily targeting two of the IoT personas

  • Adam is an IoT Security Operator. He ensures security and compliance by specifying policies that detect abnormalities and prevents devices to be compromised. He reports to audits on compliance with regulations and policy coverage on devices.

  • Sally is an IoT System Operator. She handles the day-to-day system operations on the LOB and client IoT organization. She makes sure that new device types and devices are registered, are behaving, and are up to date with recent secure firmware. She defines policies, creates and runs actions on policy alerts that act on misbehaving devices.

Hills

 
“Adam, the security analyst can define a Device Activity policy for devices, to determine whether a device is active or inactive by tracking how frequently a device talks to the platform, activating the policy, and reporting on the coverage of the policy, in under 5 minutes”

Use-Cases

As a security analyst, I can

  • View the default (disabled) device activity policy configuration 
  • Modify the default device activity and set a messaging interval
  • Add a custom rule as exception device activity policy configuration for a device type
  • Preview the predicted compliance of the new policy configuration
  • Save and enforce the updated device activity policy configuration

UX Design

The UX design of the use-case above.

 

The UX design of the Device Activity policy.

Final Product Design

Final production design for Device Activity Policy editor.

 

Final production design for Device Activity Dashboard and Compliance Reporting.

Related Designs


Design Research on IoT Device Activity. 
Read more about the research on device behavior metrics to use for a Device Activity policy in Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management.


Risk and Security Management Design. 
Read more about the design of the Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.


Compliance Reporting Design. 
Read more about the design for reporting compliance with Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.

Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management Lab. 
DevZone Quick Lab at Think 2018 on Risk and Security Management.


Sally

Meet Sally the IoT System Operator. 

Sally is one of the most frequently used operator personas in the design across the platform capabilities.

Adam

Also, meet Adam the IoT Security Operator. 


Design Research on IoT Device Activity. 
Read more about the research on device behavior metrics to use for a Device Activity policy in Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management.

Risk and Security Management Design. 
Read more about the design of the Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.

Compliance Reporting Design. 
Read more about the design for reporting compliance with Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.

Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management Lab. 
DevZone Quick Lab at Think 2018 on Risk and Security Management.

Help Hub Design

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In 2017 I delivered design concepts for an improved developer experience using a help hub capability in the Watson IoT Platform.

What is a Help Hub and a Side Panel

When users launch the Watson IoT service and open the IoT Platform web interface they are taken to the IoT platform dashboard. This default behavior is desirable and efficient for existing users of the IoT platform and takes them directly to an overview of the system state. The IoT platform dashboard is a flexible solution that allows users to use default boards, or configure their personal or team boards that present the right IoT system status to every user or team.

However, for new users entering the platform for the first time, this feature may be perceived as confusing. Users are left with the question “Ok, now what? You dropped me here, what do you want me to do?”

To improve the experience for developers exploring the platform we designed a Help Hub that answers just those questions. And, provides a structured journey for developers to quickly get started with the Watson IoT platform.

Design Vision

With the Help Hub design, we want to provide a simple onboarding experience for new users of the platform. The design should create a seamless learning experience within the Watson IoT Platform; gently guiding users toward the key ah-ha moments that allow them to form a mental model of the IoT platform and its resources. This will increase the likelihood that new users achieve their goals, gain satisfaction, continue engaging with key features, and happily refer the service to others.

The design should present a list of actions for the user to take to get started. The tasks should be context-sensitive. That is, actions are presented in a sequence of importance. Once an action is completed, new action(s) are activated and appear to the user. There are conditions that make actions active. For example, if there are no device types created the Help Hub should display a task to create a device type. Or, if there is only one user registered with the IoT platform, the Help Hub should provide an action to add additional team members as users.

Some users may find the pushing of tasks a bit annoying and will turn off such suggestions. Such users will find the Side Panel helpful as a way to, on-demand, see a list of recommended tasks and easy access to documentation.  

User Research

In our research, we identified typical situations here the Help Hub and Side Panel are key to user success and satisfaction. 

Getting started – Devon is an IoT developer in a new team formed to run a POC using IBM Cloud and Watson IoT Platform to build a demo IoT applications for a line of business in a week. The POC will provide new insights and optimizations for existing products or processes.

Devon, needs to

  • Solve a business problem through innovation
  • Build a PoC to secure ongoing funding & support
  • Anticipating production-level requirements: scale, DevOps, security, etc.
  • Needs to integrate with existing systems and processes. 

Hills

“As a Developer with no prior IoT platform experience, I can within 15 minutes set up a new IoT platform organization and start developing and testing my IoT devices and applications.”

Help Hub Design Concept

The design concept for Help Hub identifies that 

  • Developers will set up their development space in IBM Cloud, add a Watson IoT Platform service and launch the IoT Platform Dashboard
  • On the dashboard, the developer will see a clear call to action to get started
  • Enough context and information on the action will be provided directly on the dashboard
  • More detailed, deeper, information is available in the IBM Cloud documentation  
  • Selecting an action will take the user directly to the right section of the IoT Platform
  • A pre-step is presented to the user. This describes the context, the resources, and the options and considerations to be taken.
  • When the action is completed, the user its taken to a post-step that salutes the achievement, and introduces the next action to be taken.

Use-cases

As a developer 

  • I need to connect devices and get data flowing into the IoT Platform
    • I need to create my first Device Type
    • I Need to register my first Device
    • I need to connect my device to the IoT Platform
    • Or, I need to simulate a device
  • I need to enable my team members to access the IoT Platform dashboard
    • I need to add a Member
  • I need to enable my application to access the  IoT Platform APIs
    • I need to add an API Key

UX Designs

Link
Help Hub Design
The initial UX design explored one Getting Started page introducing the new user to the first actions in the IoT Platform.
Link
Help Hub Design

Using the Help Hub.

Final UX for Help Hub

The final user experience design is shown below. 

When launching the Watson IoT Platform for the first time, Devin is welcomed to the platform. The dashboard suggests that he registers a device or simulates a device. He is guided by the IoT platform on how to accomplish the action. New actions follow as he adds members and API keys to the platform.

Using the Help Hub

Final UX for Side Panel

When launching the Watson IoT Platform, Chris is presented with actions to connect devices and to register members and API keys. He clicks a button, indicating that he is not interested in any guidance. Later, Chris opens the Side Panel to view suggested actions and product documentation. 

Using the Side Panel

Final Product Design

The final production design

Related Designs


IoT Platform Developer Experience
Design research on the developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

ChrisDevon

Meet Chris is the Application Developer and Devon is the Edge Device Developer. 

Chris and Devon are the most frequently used personas in the developer experience design across the platform capabilities.


IoT Platform Developer Experience
Design research on the developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10

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Exploring Big Ideas

We generated Big Ideas on the topics of Christmas.

Communities

  • Invite lonely people to a Christmas dinner
  • Help refugees that feel lonely at Christmas
  • Help kids eat healthier at Christmas
  • Creating a great Christmas for people in urban Stockholm
  • Make urban people interested in local nature, in and around Stockholm
  • Hire a Santa for Christmas
  • Where is Santa?

 

Shopping and Business

  • Finding presents for kids
  • Help kids wish for environment-friendly and sustainable Christmas presents
  • Christmas trees are not environmentally friendly. How can we solve this?
  • Help parents find second hand Christmas gifts

 

Transportation

  • Help travelers at ‘skip stations’ to get to work
  • Better flow in the subway
  • Christmas travel guides
  • Alternate transportation. Rentals, bus, or helicopter
  • Simplify check-in and security at Christmas airports
Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10
We voted on the Big Idea of challenges with environmentally sustainable Christmas gifts.

Stakeholder Maps

We generated a Stakeholder Map from the Big Idea.

Parents

  • Want toys to not break
  • Want to give presents at reasonable prices
  • Influence the kids on what’s on the wish list
  • Different parents promote different Christmas gifts based on history and norms
  • Want the kids to be happy

 

Kids

  • The ability for reflection on alternatives and values on Christmas gifts
  • Want many presents
  • Pressure from other kids
  • Kids with an ‘environmental budget’ for Christmas gifts

 

Influencers

  • Kids channel on public tv
  • School and teachers
  • YouTubers

 

Shopping and business

  • Store owners and managers
  • Logistics managers
  • Toy producers
  • Local producers
  • Service provides
Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10
We voted for building empathy for Sabina the mum and Mackan the Youtuber.

Empathy Map

The workshop attendees discussed what level of insights and interest Sabina might have on environmental topics. We found two possible stating states. Sabina is unaware of the impact of a sustainable lifestyle and environmental conditions. Sabina may also start with an understanding, but is challenged to find information that enables her to choose the right products and priorities.

An Empathy map structures what Sabina ‘Say’, ‘Feels’, ‘Thinks’ and ‘Does’.

Sabina THINGS that she is struggling with the question of how much responsibility she should take on the topic. Maybe it’s just easier to ignite it. Her kids have many wishes for toys and high-tech electronics. She looks for energy consumption levels, the origin of production. She looks for reusable, second-hand gifts. Sabina thinks that she wants to make the kids happy.

She FEELS a bit stressed about the topic. She needs more information. But she is struggling with time.

She SAYS that the family will have a ‘Green Christmas’ this year and that Organic is important for a sustainable lifestyle. She also talks to the kids about their wish lists. “You already have 5 of those! Do you really need one more?”. She asks the kids for a more eco-friendly wish list.

She searches the web for Christmas presents. She discusses the topic with her friends on Facebook. She looks for products on the net that has energy declarations.

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10
Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10

Needs Statements

We ended the workshop by calling out the needs of Sabina and Mackan.

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10
The workshop practiced on Playbacks. A Playback is a safe environment to share ideas.
Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10

Needs statements for Sabina, the Mom

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – December 14th, 2017 at Goto10

Needs statements for Mackan, the Influencer


“Well thought out and structured presentation and Workshop”


“Good moderation by the hosts and a good mix of both lectures and workshop tasks. Nothing seemed too much or too little. Just enough information to digest. Really nice cooperation that led to a lot of good discussions”


IBM Design Thinking: Deliver Breakthrough User-Centric Solutions
Learn more about the IBM Design Thinking workshop.



Download the workshop presentation



Learn more about IBM Design and IBM Design Thinking on ibm.com/design

Design Research on IoT Edge

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In 2017 I delivered design research for an improved IoT Edge developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

What is IoT Edge?

Edge devices generally live on the edge of the network within an enterprise. They are specific hardware sensors, industrial controllers, or other industrial devices residing on private or potentially proprietary networks at a physical location.

Edge devices are creating quite a challenge for systems integrators since most are generally building cloud-based applications which rely on receiving information from IoT devices to accomplish the business goal.

There are many challenges that exist in developing a path for this information flow, including message/network protocols, bandwidth requirements, redundant data reporting, and data routing/orchestration

IoT Edge Challenges

Our design research summarises the insights of main challenges with IoT at the Edge 

Latency and Time

  • Time to response – Can not wait for a real-time cloud control response to a system state that may already have changed
  • Loss of cloud connectivity – Loss of cloud-based control may block instrumented operations

Quality and Time

  • Time to insight – It may be better to get less qualitative insights rapidly from a local computation, than wait for deep data insight from a cloud analytics service.

Bandwidth and Cost

  • It may be expensive to transfer and store all data from connected devices
  • Large IoT data traffic may choke the available bandwidth for other business solutions
  • Data gravity plays in favor of IoT cloud vendors rather than the customer

Security and Vulnerability

  • With more types of devices directly connected the vulnerability and risk of data loss increases

Compliance

  • Laws, regulations, confidentiality, and privacy may limit data to be shared or cross over borders
  • Depersonalization and masking may be required at the edge before sending to the cloud

Maintenance and Operations

  • The effort to manage instrumented assets at the edge at scale is generally underestimated
  • Managing configuration upgrades and scheduling rollouts of updates
  • Centralized management of distributed device and gateway status and health

User Research on IoT Edge Development

Based on our research we find that 

  • IoT Edge is today on the agenda for Solution Architects / Application and Device Developers / Executives / Operators
  • Organizations today have already, or are planning, an IoT Edge strategy and are developing code for devices and gateways mostly in Python and Node JS
  • Development teams are building new firmware and applications for IoT devices at the edge. They care about Remote updates / Edge analytics / Local messaging. 
  • They use ARM / Linux / MQTT / IP / Bluetooth

Devon the IoT Edge Device Developer

Devon develops and tests code for a device type that integrates sensors, actuators with analytics and control capability on the edge device. He reuses core IoT device capabilities for device security provided by the chip manufacturer, MQTT messaging, and device management. He develops his custom device behavior and protocols on the device.

He packages the device type configuration of capabilities and uploads to the IoT Platform for provisioning to devices of the type.

Role

  • Develops code for devices and gateways
  • Tests and troubleshoots networking protocols
  • Makes use of highly secure and scalable protocols for developing clients to talk to the platform
  • Makes sure that the device passes tests on connection, data transfer, device management, and security use/test-cases

Goals

  • Connects devices to the cloud to transmit data and perform tests
  • Code, test, debug and maintain firmware for devices and gateways
  • Optimizes device performance by edge capabilities
  • Monitors and reports on the performance and health of devices
  • Simulates and analyzes device data to verify features

Chris the IoT Application Developer 

Chris is developing services and applications in an IoT solution based on a cloud and edge service architecture in Bluemix that integrates with the IoT Platform.

He develops microservices that respond to state and conditional events and implement the business workflows and applications.

Role

  • Develops cloud applications and services that depend on data and events from the Watson IoT platform
  • Uses IoT platform and database APIs to access device data
  • Responsible for system architecture, technology selection, code development and validation, and system integration testing

Goals

  • Minimum set up for the new environment
  • Implement data models
  • Connect simulated devices and play with the data
  • Create and test applications, micro-services and exposing APIs
  • Use client libraries to code productively

IoT Edge Developer Journey

The developer journey for Chris and Devon

  • Create or Join new Bluemix developer space(s)
    • Select a Bluemix Starter Kit with Cloud and Edge services included and configured
    • Configure local developer tools and shared team environments
    • Configure build and stage delivery toolchains
  • Define IoT solution architecture and components
    • Develop micro-services containers
    • Develop functions and packages
    • Develop IoT Data Management resources
    • Develop message routing and actions
  • Distribute cloud components to the edge
    • Distribute micro-services containers to the edge
    • Distribute function packages to the edge
    • Develop message routing and actions at the edge
    • Distribute IoT Data Management resources to the edge
  • Deploy and Operator in production
    • Stage IoT solution (updates) to production
    • Provision (updates) to devices and gateways at the edge

Related Designs

New designs are emerging in the Watson IoT Platform for IoT Edge.

Getting Started with IoT Edge
DevZone Lab at Think 2018 on IoT Edge using Preview 2 Beta.

ChrisDevon

Meet Chris is the Application Developer and Devon is the Edge Device Developer. 

Chris and Devon are the most frequently used personas in the developer experience design across the platform capabilities.


IoT Platform Developer Experience
Design research on the developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Getting Started with IoT Edge
DevZone Lab at Think 2018 on IoT Edge using Preview 2 Beta.

IBM Design Thinking Workshop – October 26th, 2017 at Goto10

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Exploring Big Ideas

We generated a Big Idea idea about the design of what to do when public transportation is canceled and people are stuck in the center of Stockholm. 

Stakeholder Maps

We generated a Stakeholder Map from the Big Idea.

Officials and Data providers

City officials, public departments, police, public transport companies, maintenance managers, and engineers working on broken infrastructure. They all have information to share about the situation, recommendations on what to do, and the plans when it will be fixed.

Alternative transporters

Drivers, Taxis, Pooling, Bike rentals, and kind people can help citizens to get from Stockholm city to their homes or other destinations.

Citizens 

Going from a commonplace A to their destinations 
Going from A to a common destination B

Businesses and Developers 

Businesses that want to use this event to generate business and deliver services

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – October 26th, 2017 at Goto10
We voted for building empathy for Bob running a Bike Rental and John a Police officer at the scene in Stockholm.

Empathy Maps

The workshop explored the empathy map for Bob. An empathy map structures what Bob ‘Say’, ‘Feels’, ‘Thinks’ and ‘Does’.Bob, owning a bike rental business, THINKS this is a great opportunity. “How much can I earn?.” He thinks about the situation and his capacity to deliver his service. 

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – October 26th, 2017 at Goto10

Empathy Map for Bob at the Bike Rental 

“Do I have enough bikes, locks, helmets?”. “How should my customer pay?”.

But at the moment he FEELS happy and a bit stressed. He needs help to pull this off. And he feels good about helping people.

He SAYS – “I love SL and the business it brings me” and asks “Where should I keep my bikes to be ready?”.

He bumps up the price of rentals and calls in help from his friends using SMSs. 

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – October 26th, 2017 at Goto10

Empathy Map for John the Police

John THINKS, and fears, that crimes were committed and hopes that no one is hurt. He assesses where dangerous situations may occur. He needs to work overtime.

He FEELS stressed and disappointed. Oh, no, not again. He needs to stay focused and realize he just missed his ‘fika’-break 🙁

He SAYS – “How can I help” and “Keep CALM”. He instructs on routes to exit out of Stockholm city.

He gives directions and advice. He sizes the situation, reports on needs, and calls in for assistance. He provides assistance to people with special needs.

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – October 26th, 2017 at Goto10

Needs Statements

We ended the workshop by calling out the needs of Bob and John.

Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – October 26th, 2017 at Goto10
Needs statements for Bob the Bike Rental.
Link
IBM Design Thinking Workshop – October 26th, 2017 at Goto10
Needs statements for John the Police.

Based on the needs statement, we find the following design opportunities

Transportation

  • Need directions on where to go – hotel, restaurant, or another meet-up place
  • Need options on transportation – car, bus, bike?
  • Need clarity on schedules – when leaving from where?
  • Need pricing information – do I have the money?

 

Finding contacts

  • Need to find a friend
  • Need to find a guide
  • Need to find a local

“Very useful and inspiring”

IBM Design Thinking: Deliver Breakthrough User-Centric Solutions
Learn more about the IBM Design Thinking workshop.



Download the workshop presentation



Learn more about IBM Design and IBM Design Thinking on ibm.com/design

What the heck is a THING – Device abstractions and thing aggregation for Internet of Things

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Abstract

Make and model of products from a single manufacturer include a lot of variability in the underlying components and sensors. When you are building IoT solutions to work with a range of connected THINGS from many suppliers, you start to realize the huge challenge you face managing the interaction with this broad and complex device ecosystem. Wouldn’t it be better if the IoT application developer could just interact with a standard resource model and the underlying IoT platform managed the relationship between the model and the real-world devices? Come and learn more about the latest innovations in the Watson IoT Platform.

This session presents the new Information Management capabilities in the Watson IoT Platform for device abstractions and things aggregation that is the basis for the Digital Twin work for IoT.

 

TLE2017StockholmOct5.Things.public

 



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Simulated Devices Design

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In 2017 I delivered design concepts for an improved developer experience using simulated devices in the Watson IoT Platform.

What is a Simulated Device

Devices are smart sensors that instrument equipment at the edge. They connect to the IBM Cloud through the Watson IoT Platform. Devices send messages, using the MQTT messaging protocol, to the IoT platform. The messages contain sensor readings formatted as JSON payloads.

To connect a device to the IoT platform developers need an actual physical device. Most IoT developer has devices ready to connect. But in some cases, a lack of an available device may become a delay in exploring the IoT Platform and start developing IoT applications. The IoT Platform should support developers to get started even without a physical device to connect. This blog describes the design of a new flexible capability to set up simulated devices in the Watson IoT Platform.

Design Vision

With Simulated Devices, we want to improve the getting started experience for device and application developers.

The design vision is to allow users to create simulated virtual devices of a new or an existing device type. Users should be allowed to define the messages that the device should send, set up a schedule for the frequency of messages to be sent, and then turn on the device. Directly in the IoT Platform. As simple as that!

We want to deliver this capability independently of the IoT Platform backend and make the simulator run in the client browser. We also want to be conservative about the number of messages and data volume sent to avoid choking the IoT platform with high volume data or spending the free data plan for trial IoT Platform clients.

User Research

In our research, we identify two developer personas.

Devon, a Device Developer. Devon develops and tests code for a device that integrates sensors and actuators with the OS and CPU board capabilities. He integrates MQTT and device management protocols on the device. He uses SDKs provided by chip manufacturers and applies security by design principles.

Chris, an Application Developer. Chris is developing applications and services in a connected product IoT solution based on a cloud service architecture in IBM Cloud that integrates with the IoT Platform. He develops and tests his components locally and deploys to a team development space in the cloud configured with an IoT Platform using live or simulated device data.

In most cases, Chris may have a device delivered by Devon to use for application development and testing. In other cases, Chris needs a simulator to proceed with exploring the IoT Platform APIs, Data Management interfaces and transformation, State change events, and other aspects of the integration of his IoT Application with devices and data on the IoT Platform.

In this design, we primarily focus on Chris the application developer and his first steps in exploring and getting started with the IoT Platform. We want Chris to quickly get live devices and data. Secondarily we support Devon in his everyday use of the platform to develop new device firmware. Using the simulator, Devon can test and deliver new message schemas to Chris and early validate new firmware specifications with Chris applications running with the IoT Platform.

Hills

We defined the following hill for Chris the application developer

“As a Developer with no prior IoT platform experience, I can within 15 minutes set up a new IoT platform organization and start developing and testing my IoT devices and applications using simulated devices”
“As a Developer creating a new Device Type, I can choose to register a new physical device, or simulate a device of the new type”

Device Simulator Design Concept

The design concept for Simulated Devices identifies that 

  • Simulated devices are a core part of the platform experience
  • As a developer you opt-in for this capability in IoT platform settings
  • The simulator is driven by a floating panel easily available from any screen in the IoT platform  
  • Simulated devices act as any other device on the platform; they are of a device type, they have an identity, they send messages to the platform, like any physical device.
  • Messages from simulated devices act as any message on the platform; they are received on a topic, they are of a message type, they are put into the last message cache, they are passed to applications, like any message from any physical device.
  • There may be multiple simulated devices of a single device type
  • There may be simulated devices of multiple device types
  • There may be both simulated and physical devices of the same device types
  • Simulated devices may mimic physical devices and send events that are already the last message cache. (So if I once had a device connected that sent a message I have to use a simulator to act as that device and continue to send messages.)
  • I can set up variability in messages so data randomize between two end-points.
  • I can set up variability in messages so different simulated devices, of the same type, send different data messages.

 

The design should also provide shortcuts in other parts of the IoT platform to provide hints to developers to use simulated devices to make progress. 

  • Shortcuts put on IoT platform panels, can set up simulations with one click.
  • Rather than pulling simulators out in the developer experience and out of context, they are integrated into the development flow

Use-cases

As a developer 

  • I can opt-in and enable simulated devices and get a ‘Simulated” device type added to my organization
  • I can add (one or more) simulated devices and give them a name (pattern) “MyDevice” or “MyDevice#” and get a default event/payload sent to a topic, alternating over these instances.
  • I can browse the list of devices on the platform and view real and simulated device and their state (raw data)
  • I can specify the JSON payload schema for devices
  • I can specify a data range for simulated element values
  • I can add (one or more) additional simulated devices by id
  • I can specify a different JSON payload schema for different devices

UX Designs

The initial UX design explored two major screens in the IoT Platform.

The main simulator page for devices of a selected type. On this page, users can add new simulated devices, or select an existing registered device to be simulated. Users can also turn on/off the simulation.

Link
Simulated Devices Design
Link
Simulated Devices Design

Final Production Design

The final production design is shown below.

In the first user journey below, Chris is entering the IoT platform. He enables Simulated devices on the settings page. When opening the simulator he is informed that he needs to create a device type. He switches to the Device Type section and creates a new temperatureSensor type. He then returns to the simulator, modifies the default message to send a temperature value. He creates a device that is given the default name TemperatureSensor-1. The simulator starts to send 20.0 C values. Chris modifies the message schema to send temperature values in a range between 15.0 and 20.0 C. 

Configure a new simulated device.

 

In the second user journey below, Chris is using an existing device type TiSensorTag and an already registered device TiSensorTag-1. The device has previously been connected to the IoT Platform and an event exists in the last event cache. Chris configures the message to match the registered device. 

Simulate a registered device.

 

The configuration of types, events, and devices in IoT Platform Device Simulator simulator can be Exported and Imported across sessions, users, and test cases. 

Use the Import/Export tab to manage simulations using a JSON definition of the simulator configuration.

Link
Simulated Devices Design

Related Designs


IoT Platform Developer Experience
Design research on the developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Getting Started with Simulated Devices
DevZone Quick Lab at Think 2018 on Simulated Devices.

“All IoT Platform Design Partners strongly agree with the importance of simulated devices to their organisations and that the design meets their needs.”

ChrisDevon

Meet Chris is the Application Developer and Devon is the Edge Device Developer. 

Chris and Devon are the most frequently used personas in the developer experience design across the platform capabilities.


IoT Platform Developer Experience
Design research on the developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Getting Started with Simulated Devices
DevZone Quick Lab at Think 2018 on Simulated Devices.

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