A framework for customer-oriented IoT product design

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a paradigm that mimics smart behaviors of human counterparts by means of artificial intelligence techniques. As a disruptive technology, IoT requires that its adopters have to create their own view of the concept. Pioneering companies like Google, General Electric, Amazon or Samsung, are trying to define their individual product families on proprietary platforms without seeking compatibility with other platforms. The main reasons for lack of a common platform are that IoT vision requires organizations to come up with new mobile computing scenarios and propose products that should be able to connect with everyday objects and show some level of intelligence to fulfill the promise of `smart' products. The aim of this study is to come up with a decision support tool to introduce a design of smart, connected products in terms of typical customer expectations. Besides, it aims to integrate sustainability into IoT design by considering energy efficiency and resources usage. Quality Function Deployment (QFD), which is a management tool that uses customer expectations and transforms them into the product/service attributes, is used to guide the product/service providers in shaping their IoT products/services. The tool aims to replicate human reasoning process by making use of fuzzy set theory. The applicability of the proposed methodology is demonstrated using a wearable IoT solution design.