Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households’ Social Needs

Antti Salovaara; Andrea Bellucci; Andrea Vianello; Giulio Jacucci

doi:10.1145/3411764.3445770

Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households’ Social Needs

Antti Salovaara^*, Andrea Bellucci, Andrea Vianello, Giulio Jacucci

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference article in proceedings › Scientific › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

82 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

End-user-programmable smart-home toolkits have engendered excitement in recent years. However, modern homes already cater quite well to users’ needs, and genuinely new needs for smart-home automation seldom arise. Acknowledging this challenging starting point, we conducted a six-week in-the-wild study of smart-home toolkits with four carefully recruited technology-savvy families. Interleaved with free toolkit use in the home were several creativity workshops to facilitate ideation and programming. We evaluated use experiences at the end of the six weeks. Even with extensive facilitation, families faced difficulties in identifying needs for smart-home automation, except for social needs that emerged in all the families. We present analysis of those needs and discuss how end-user-programmable toolkits could better engage with both those household members who design new automated functions and those who merely ‘use’ them.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publication	Making Waves, Combining Strengths
Publisher	ACM
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-8096-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445770
Publication status	Published - 6 May 2021
MoE publication type	A4 Conference publication
Event	ACM SIGCHI Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Virtual, Online, Yokohama, Japan Duration: 8 May 2021 → 13 May 2021 https://chi2021.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	ACM SIGCHI Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Abbreviated title	ACM CHI
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	08/05/2021 → 13/05/2021
Internet address	https://chi2021.acm.org/

Keywords

end-user programming
internet of things
smart homes
in-the-wild study
trigger–action programming
appropriation

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10.1145/3411764.3445770Licence: CC BY

3411764.3445770Final published version, 4.5 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households{\textquoteright} Social Needs",

abstract = "End-user-programmable smart-home toolkits have engendered excitement in recent years. However, modern homes already cater quite well to users{\textquoteright} needs, and genuinely new needs for smart-home automation seldom arise. Acknowledging this challenging starting point, we conducted a six-week in-the-wild study of smart-home toolkits with four carefully recruited technology-savvy families. Interleaved with free toolkit use in the home were several creativity workshops to facilitate ideation and programming. We evaluated use experiences at the end of the six weeks. Even with extensive facilitation, families faced difficulties in identifying needs for smart-home automation, except for social needs that emerged in all the families. We present analysis of those needs and discuss how end-user-programmable toolkits could better engage with both those household members who design new automated functions and those who merely {\textquoteleft}use{\textquoteright} them.",

keywords = "end-user programming, internet of things, smart homes, in-the-wild study, trigger–action programming, appropriation",

author = "Antti Salovaara and Andrea Bellucci and Andrea Vianello and Giulio Jacucci",

year = "2021",

month = may,

day = "6",

doi = "10.1145/3411764.3445770",

language = "English",

booktitle = "CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "ACM",

address = "United States",

note = "ACM SIGCHI Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM CHI ; Conference date: 08-05-2021 Through 13-05-2021",

url = "https://chi2021.acm.org/",

}

Salovaara, A, Bellucci, A, Vianello, A & Jacucci, G 2021, Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households’ Social Needs. in CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Making Waves, Combining Strengths., 718, ACM, ACM SIGCHI Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 08/05/2021. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445770

Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households’ Social Needs. / Salovaara, Antti; Bellucci, Andrea; Vianello, Andrea et al.
CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Making Waves, Combining Strengths. ACM, 2021. 718.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference article in proceedings › Scientific › peer-review

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T1 - Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households’ Social Needs

AU - Salovaara, Antti

AU - Bellucci, Andrea

AU - Vianello, Andrea

AU - Jacucci, Giulio

PY - 2021/5/6

Y1 - 2021/5/6

N2 - End-user-programmable smart-home toolkits have engendered excitement in recent years. However, modern homes already cater quite well to users’ needs, and genuinely new needs for smart-home automation seldom arise. Acknowledging this challenging starting point, we conducted a six-week in-the-wild study of smart-home toolkits with four carefully recruited technology-savvy families. Interleaved with free toolkit use in the home were several creativity workshops to facilitate ideation and programming. We evaluated use experiences at the end of the six weeks. Even with extensive facilitation, families faced difficulties in identifying needs for smart-home automation, except for social needs that emerged in all the families. We present analysis of those needs and discuss how end-user-programmable toolkits could better engage with both those household members who design new automated functions and those who merely ‘use’ them.

AB - End-user-programmable smart-home toolkits have engendered excitement in recent years. However, modern homes already cater quite well to users’ needs, and genuinely new needs for smart-home automation seldom arise. Acknowledging this challenging starting point, we conducted a six-week in-the-wild study of smart-home toolkits with four carefully recruited technology-savvy families. Interleaved with free toolkit use in the home were several creativity workshops to facilitate ideation and programming. We evaluated use experiences at the end of the six weeks. Even with extensive facilitation, families faced difficulties in identifying needs for smart-home automation, except for social needs that emerged in all the families. We present analysis of those needs and discuss how end-user-programmable toolkits could better engage with both those household members who design new automated functions and those who merely ‘use’ them.

KW - end-user programming

KW - internet of things

KW - smart homes

KW - in-the-wild study

KW - trigger–action programming

KW - appropriation

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DO - 10.1145/3411764.3445770

M3 - Conference article in proceedings

BT - CHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - ACM

T2 - ACM SIGCHI Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Y2 - 8 May 2021 through 13 May 2021

ER -

Programmable Smart Home Toolkits Should Better Address Households’ Social Needs

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Keywords

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