Developing a Design Toolkit for the Internet of Things

In a future where products get smarter and networked, becoming part of the Internet of Things, the design discipline acquires an increasingly strategic and visionary role. In the business to consumer market, the successful products will be those that answer meaningfully to user needs. This paper describes the development process of the “MappingTheIoT Toolkit”, an open source resource born to support multidisciplinary teams in the design of IoT products. The tools guide through research activities and the different phases of the creative process and can be used freely or in a structured way. This paper will outline the complete Toolkit development: initial research, scope definition, requirements and positioning of the tool in the Double Diamond representation, refinement process and final evolution of the Toolkit elements. The described process may be used as a reference for developing other methodological design toolkits. Since the MappingTheIoT Toolkit is in its testing phase, this paper also attempts to get in touch with the scientific community and foster possible collaborations.