A Visual Rapid Prototyping Environment for Smart Home Concepts

Sammanfattning: This research project is part of the Internet of Things and People (IoTaP) project at Malmo ̈ University. The project focuses on the aspects of human-computer interaction in a visual programming environment. Visual programming is becoming increasingly popular in different sector of the IT world. Visual programming allows for novices or non-professional programmers to create systems without any or extensive scripting/coding skills. The research presented in this thesis is on a visual rapid prototyping environment that is founded on an existing smart home platform, and allows for designers and developer to prototype smart home concepts using smart devices. The research methodologies used involve Design Science methods infused with User-Centered Design principles and methods (Participatory Design). The research process involves a series of workshops performed with some of the IoTaP smart home re- searcher. The research process also involves qualitative investigation of existing visual prototyping tools and techniques.A prototype of a visual rapid prototyping environment was used to evaluate the research findings. The evaluation process focused on defining the benefits of a visual rapid prototyping environment and how it can help improve the design and testing process of smart home devices.