I teach the fundamentals, technologies and processes with the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) within the program Digital Business Management (DBM). At a hackathon event, students are required to design and implement an IoT project as a team. On January 30, 2018 they presented their projects.

Goal: To enable creative teams to innovate, to explore, to experiment with and to validate their IoT ideas beyond the post-its level. Check out the following video presentation from Team SnapIt

IoT Living Lab Process

Developing IoT Apps using the Living Lab Process

The living lab process structures the activities of innovating an IoT application and its development. It repeats these activities to learn from a prototype and refine it. It iterates through the activities Co-Creation, Exploration, Experimentation, Evaluation.

Keys to success are

  • the Exploration phase using ubiquitously available technologies, e.g. smartphones, for building mock-up prototypes
  • the Experimentation phase where you should use the mock-up prototype in daily routines close the aimed usage scenario

Both deliver the experiences one can learn from and refine the IoT application. My students show in their projects how this process works and how it is applied.

Presentations at the DBM IoT Hackathon WS 2017

What can the living lab process do for you?

You don’t need to be a developer. The projects and video presentations show how to approach your next IoT product.

Do not stop at the post-its level, but develop a prototype. The living lab process guides a creative team with various competencies to make reasonable, justifiable and traceable decisions.

Do not stop at the demo level, but embed the mock-up prototype in your daily routines. It transforms your working environment into a living lab.

For companies it is a low risk method as the iterative process design enables a pay-as-you-go approach. In my opinion, this is a success factor to transfer an living lab prototype app into a product.

Call to Action

Check out my students’ presentations and other resources and start your own living lab.

  • SnapIt: design and experiment with your own IoT enabled vending machine
  • iowash: an IoT Service for community washing machines
  • Wanderlust: your hiking route as a service