The Pop, of course, be used by anyone, and they come in four different colors to help people keep track of which one controls which actions. But given the range of devices Pop can control (Sonos, for instance, and your entire home theater setup if you’re also a Logitech Harmony Hub owner), I wondered why each switch wasn’t built with more programmable options. Why stop at three actions per device?
“You still want to be simple, you still want to be capable,” Raggio said. “And so we landed on three gestures, as something from a mental model that would be easy enough that a user would know those gestures.”
They’ve also found users tend to like one Pop per room, and the three actions was enough to satisfy the needs people had in any given room in most cases. And since the interface is so simple, Raggio is right that there’s value in limiting the options – I’ve used a Phillips Hue Tap for over a year now, and it still takes me a couple of seconds to remember what each of its four buttons does, and they only involve Hue.
But simplicity in control and eliminating the interface is something a lot of companies are striving for, and no sphere of tech needs simplification more than the smart home. Just getting set up can be a mess, and trying to have stuff act reliably in concert is another challenge altogether. The app for Logitech’s Pop addresses the typical difficulty of programming with easy, drag and drop recipe creation and a text-heavy UI that speaks volumes without overwhelming users.
Setting up Pop was far simpler than setting up any Logitech Harmony device, and that’s by design, since the company is looking to branch out to more mainstream users with this product, instead of its core fan base of home theater junkies.
Logitech’s single button interface is an alternative to Amazon Alexa’s conversational, voice-based approach to taking some of the confusion out of smartphone interaction. There’s not reason not to use the two in tandem, in fact, and that could fill in gaps for users who aren’t entirely comfortable with one or the other approach.