Speaker: Kurt McIntire, Co-Founder, Vektor Digital
@kurtmcintire, @vektordigital
Launching a product or business that utilizes beacon technology? In this presentation, Kurt McIntire, Founder of Vektor Digital, breaks down the 11 keys to success for crafting successful beacon applications. He draws from his team's experience building over a half-dozen beacon and BLE applications for innovative startups and cutting-edge businesses.
11 Keys to Success:
1. Set Stakeholder Expectations
2. Validate If Beacons Are Needed
3. Know Your Operating Systems
4. Understand BLE Background Modes
5. Convey Value During Onboarding
6. Handle Bluetooth Off States
7. Provide Privacy Settings
8. Ensure User Interface Matches Beacon Accuracy
9. Utilize Beacon Cloud Management
10. Deploy with Interference in Mind
11. Aggregate Analytics Centrally
14. 1. All the ranging, all the monitoring, with battery trade-off
2. An app isn’t required with Eddystone beacons
3. Greater than 57% of devices support BLE
4. Individual models are better at BLE than others
Android
Eddystone AltBeacon
15. 1. Lock screen notifications even when an app is terminated
2. Suggested apps for those already downloaded
3. Greater than 84% of devices support BLE
4. Core Bluetooth is required for complex functionality
iOS
iBeacon Core Bluetooth
16. 1. Available on Windows 8.1 with open-source WinBeacon
2. Available officially with Windows 10
3. Allows monitoring and ranging (watching and scanning)
Windows
Windows 10 WinBeacon
18. 1. Determine proximity (immediate, close, far) from beacons
2. Get limited lock screen notifications
1. Avoid impacting battery life
2. Show content outside lock screen notification norms
What you can do
What you can’t
19.
20.
21.
22. 5. convey value during
onboarding
What do your users get for sharing
their proximity?
23.
24.
25.
26. 6. handle BLE off states
Not everyone has bluetooth “on” all
the time. Let users know they’re
missing out.
32. 1. Be transparent about why you want their location
2. Explain what you are collecting and how it benefits them
3. Give them an option to opt-out, or modify privacy settings
Optimizing for the user?
33.
34.
35. 8. Ensure User Interface
Matches Beacon
Accuracy
Beacon accuracy isn’t perfect. Your
UI shouldn’t suggest it is.
36.
37. We’ll tell you how far away
your Tile is in feet
Tile is
16.8-ft
away
38. 9. utilize beacon cloud
management
If you don’t have a maintenance plan,
your app won’t be useful for long
39.
40.
41.
42. 10. deploy with
interference in mind
Beacons signals aren’t transmitted
uniformly and get scattered or
dampened by materials
56. 1. Set Stakeholder Expectations
2. Validate If Beacons Are Needed
3. Know Your Operating Systems
4. Understand BLE Background Modes
5. Convey Value During Onboarding
6. Handle Bluetooth Off States
7. Provide Privacy Settings
8. Ensure User Interface Matches Beacon Accuracy
9. Utilize Beacon Cloud Management
10. Deploy with Interference in Mind
11. Aggregate Analytics Centrally
crafting successful
beacon apps