An interface for increasing users’ understanding of smart home systems using gamification

Abstract

Smart home systems are becoming more and more popular as the technologies become more sophisticated and efficient. Despite this interest and popularity, the use and acceptance of smart home systems are still low. This is due to factors such as lack of understanding of how smart home systems work, as well as concerns about privacy and data protection. We created a concept of a smart home interface that is supposed to increase understanding of the functioning and data management of the system through gamification. Interviews were conducted with possible users, who were questioned about their experiences with and opinions about certain aspects of smart home systems, to further investigate the factors that impact acceptance. After that, the subjects were presented our concept, which is supposed to solve these barriers. Results show that most participants worry about a lack of transparency of data usage in a smart home but have mostly positive feelings about our concept. We conclude that our gamification approach has the potential to make people more aware of how personal data works and how it is handled.