I Wish You Were Smart(er): Investigating Users' Desires and Needs Towards Home Appliances

In this work, we present findings from an online survey (N=77) in which we assessed situations of users wishing for features or devices in their home to be smart(er). Our work is motivated by the fact that on one hand, several successful smart devices and features found their way into users' homes (e.g., smart TVs, smart assistants, smart toothbrushes). On the other hand, a more holistic understanding of when and why users would like devices and features to be smart is missing as of today. Such knowledge is valuable for researchers and practitioners to inform the design of future smart home devices and features, in particular with regards to interaction techniques, privacy mechanisms, and, ultimately, acceptance and uptake. We found that users would appreciate smart features for various use cases, including remote control and multi-tasking, and are willing to share devices. We believe our work to be useful for designers and HCI researchers by supporting the design and evaluation of future smart devices.