Proving the concept

As it was highlighted in the post "Is the wind still blowing?", the development of the PoC is ongoing and it seems that this artefact is already serving its purpose: helping gather insights and high-level feedback. This, perhaps, should not come as a surprise, since the rationale behind the PoC was to try to shorten the release of value to some extent before the MVP, given the relatively broad scope and long time horizon of the latter.

What follows is a brief list of thoughts and clarifications prompted by some recent feedback.

Focus on the Scope

This is an important principle and it is worth re-assessing it regularly. At least in our context, resources are limited, therefore, heuristics are important for progress. Maintaining focus and prioritizing are of extreme value. A side note: reduced resources can be an enabler for innovation. The scope of the current PoC is the indoor environment but the MVP still encompasses the outdoor. The "desire" here is that the design principles developed for the indoor will still hold for the outdoor.

UX as a building block

This was probably clear already from "Visualising the concept", but it is worth repeating that the experience of the user is central. Every feedback that goes in the direction of the user experience is evaluated carefully and integrated promptly.

The architecture

We are still trying to follow the IoT-A reference model, as described in "Coffes, Cookies and Architecture", althought not all details and requirements might be known at the current time.

The topic of personalisation

It is described on the project's homepage that one of AirQ's goals is the development of personalised services. Before continuing, it is beneficial to make a premise: AirQ does not want to suggest actions to improve the status of the environment but rather attempts at providing actionable insights - cues for action - to reduce the impact of bad air quality on the individual. This is an important distinction because it leans on the importance of the power of perspectives.

As described in "Visualising the concept", Research is a large part of the PoC scope and possibly the riskiest. It was noted in the post that "its link to the UX remains unclear". To some extent, this link can be explored in terms of Analysis, not to be confused with Analytics as the third area for the PoC. On our way towards providing actionable insights, we necessarily need to have Research and Analysis in our "toolbox".

Image created by the author with the help of AI