KS Technologies, LLC’s Post

How should an IoT device provide a great user experience? Typically, these devices are small, power efficient, have some degree of water and dust ingress protection, and are incredibly limited in terms of displays and buttons. Even worse, a person typically interacts with an IoT device when they first turn it on and provision it, rarely during the normal life of the product, and intensely when the battery needs replacing or recharging. For IoT Devices, striking the balance between a complex task like provisioning and an infrequent task like battery replacement is challenging. Avoiding long and complex #LED blink sequences is also advisable. At #KST, we’ve always struggled with these design tradeoffs. Soon, we will be launching a new BLE device where we have an IP67 enclosure that must accept input from a person while giving them helpful feedback. In this product, we’ve opted for an external membrane keyboard with embedded RGB LEDs. The notations are simple to read and international. By forming light pipe lenses that represent familiar shapes, like that of a battery, we can easily communicate basic ideas .Just because you have an inexpensive, ingress protected IoT Device does not mean you need to compromise on user experience. Contact us today to brainstorm how this can be accomplished in your product and to ask about our own experiences building custom, external keyboards with LED indicators.

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