Google hires a new design chief to improve the smart home experience (GOOGL, GOOG)

July 31, 2017

Google hires a new design chief to improve the smart home experience (GOOGL, GOOG)

Reasons Consumer purchased smart home device

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Google hired Liron Damir to serve as the head of user experience for the Google Home in an effort to improve the smart speaker's user experience, according to The Verge.

He will be leading the design of the Google Home products, per an announcement on his LinkedIn profile. Previously, Damir was the VP of Design at smartwatch startup Pebble and was head of UX at Essential, the smartphone startup founded by Android co-founder Andy Rubin.

Bolstering the Google Home's UX could help it fend off the new competition it will face in the coming months.

Consumers want their smart home experience to be seamless and convenient. One-third of global consumers say they purchased their smart home devices for the convenience they provide, while devices working the way they should and working together seamlessly were the two largest points of satisfaction for smart home users, according to a recent Support.com survey.
Offering that could help Google gain a large share of the market despite the forthcoming threat from competitors. For the last six months Amazon and Google have been the primary players in the smart speaker market, but that's about to change — Apple and Microsoft will release competing devices later this year, while Samsung and Facebook are rumored to be working on devices too. But a better UX could help Google persuade more consumers to opt for the Home instead of these new devices that are coming to market in the next few months.

And that could put pressure on competing smart home ecosystems to improve their UX. While it's unclear exactly what projects Damir will be working on for the Home, he could be involved with expanding the number of smart home devices that work with it, something that gives users more flexibility in the devices they can use, which they'd likely see as a boost to the device's UX. And if Google is able to make this and other improvements to make it the most user-friendly smart home ecosystem, Apple, Amazon, and Samsung will face pressure to one up Google and could in response try and make improvements to their UX. And that will be especially important in the next couple years as the smart home market increasingly attracts consumers beyond early adopters.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the US smart home market that:

Analyzes current consumer demand for smart home devices based off results from BI Intelligence's proprietary survey.
Forecasts future growth in the number of smart home devices installed in American homes.
Analyzes the factors influencing the proliferation of voice control devices in the homes.
Identifies and analyzes the market strategies of various companies that have integrated voice control into their smart home ecosystems.

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