Ashton Snook joins MEX founder Marek Pawlowski to share how Hive is approaching the complex, multi-touchpoint challenge of delivering good customer experience for its smart home products. Ashton talks about the user research and product design aspects, as well as the organisational journey he’s been on to build collaboration between teams and keep the customer at the heart of the conversation. The discussion expands to some of the user stories inspiring Ashton and his team, as well as the wider implications of society’s changing relationship with energy usage. It’s great to hear from listeners! You can get in touch with feedback, questions, guest suggestions or anything else @mexfeed on Twitter or email designtalk@mobileuserexperience.com.

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On this edition

• Ashton Snook, Head of Design, Digital and Physical Products, Hive
• Marek Pawlowski, podcast host & founder, MEX (@marekpawlowski)

Links

• The 80s film Ashton references, but couldn’t recall the name of in the moment was ‘Big’, starring Tom Hanks.
• Hive’s range of products for the home, from heating to security.
• The original 2013 press release announcing Hive from British Gas and Centrica, following up on Ashton’s mention of how Hive came into being.
• About 18% of the UK’s CO2 emissions were classed as ‘Residential’ in 2018, the most recent year for which we were able to find official government figures (PDF), while a further 27% were classed as ‘Energy supply’. The overall trend is downward, with the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions 43.5% lower in 2018 than in 1990.
• A MEX post about the principles of multi-touchpoint experience design, which explains some of the background of this ongoing theme in the MEX initiative.
• Some of the services, such as IFTTT, Siri, Google Home and Alexa, which Hive connects with.
• A 2004 Wired Magazine article covering the Alloy smartphone concepts Marek mentioned in the introduction.
• The 2004 press release and case study (PDF) describing the Alloy and PMN smartphone concepts shown at the World Handset Forum in San Diego, mentioned by Marek in the introduction.
• Matt Plested, who introduced Ashton to Marek.

About MEX Design Talk & how to get in touch

The podcast for the MEX community, interviewing UX pioneers, exploring emerging technologies, user behaviour and how to design better digital experiences.

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Thanks

• Jukedeck, for the artificial intelligence engine which provided the music