Are questions about the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) on topic?

Question

The ongoing Internet of Things (IoT) Area51 proposal reminded me of this site again.

The tour of this site states:

UX Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for User Experience Designers, Information Architects, and Human Computer Interaction researchers.

Therefore I feel IoT would obviously be on topic here, since quite a few HCI researchers rely on IoT, and I would presume the same is true for UX designers.

However, if you feel those questions would be welcome here (which is my initial impression) you might want to create a 'possible duplicate' post at Area51 redirecting them to here.

P.s. Before, I suggested they should broaden their scope, e.g., to HCI. I mainly did so since professional HCI questions seem underrepresented here, which is mainly why I don't visit this site often. If you would want to be welcoming to HCI, I suggest you reach out to this new IoT community.

Answer 1

Questions about Internet of Things are on topic here if they ask about how to design or improve the existing design of an Internet of Things thing. In general, the proposed questions for that Area 51 site do not fall in this category.

Many of the popular proposed questions on the Internet of Things Area51 site are about how to solve problems with already-existing products, and would thus be off-topic here. (Examples of popular questions in this category are "How do I keep my smart lightbulb from telling its manufacturer every time I leave the house?" and "My NFC connected door lock froze and requires a hard reboot, but I'm locked outside the house. How can I fix this?")

Some of the other questions proposed on that Area 51 are about implementation, by which I mean the technical logistics of creating something, which is also not on topic here. (See for example "Is widespread use of end-to-encryption possible with IoT?")