Evolution towards smart home environments: empirical evaluation of three user interfaces

@article{citeulike:3035495, abstract = {Smart home environments have evolved to the point where everyday objects and devices at home can be networked to give the inhabitants new means to control them. Familiar information appliances can be used as user interfaces (UIs) to home functions to achieve a more convenient user experience. This paper reports an ethnographic study of smart home usability and living experience. The purpose of the research was to evaluate three UIs—a PC, a media terminal, and a mobile phone—for smart home environments. The results show two main types of activity patterns, pattern control and instant control, which require different UI solutions. The results suggest that a PC can act as a central unit to control functions for activity patterns that can be planned and determined in advance. The mobile phone, on the other hand, is well suited for instant control. The mobile phone turned out to be the primary and most frequently used UI during the 6-month trial period in the smart apartment.}, address = {London, UK}, author = {Koskela, Tiiu and V\"{a}\"{a}n\"{a}nen-Vainio-Mattila, Kaisa }, citeulike-article-id = {3035495}, doi = {10.1007/s00779-004-0283-x}, issn = {1617-4909}, journal = {Personal Ubiquitous Comput.}, keywords = {iui09\_related\_work, smarthome}, number = {3-4}, pages = {234--240}, posted-at = {2008-07-22 23:52:57}, priority = {2}, publisher = {Springer-Verlag}, title = {Evolution towards smart home environments: empirical evaluation of three user interfaces}, url = {http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1012647.1012660}, volume = {8}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3035495 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3035495 TI - Evolution towards smart home environments: empirical evaluation of three user interfaces JF - Personal Ubiquitous Comput. VL - 8 IS - 3-4 SP - 234 EP - 240 AD - London, UK PB - Springer-Verlag SN - 1617-4909 N2 - Smart home environments have evolved to the point where everyday objects and devices at home can be networked to give the inhabitants new means to control them. Familiar information appliances can be used as user interfaces (UIs) to home functions to achieve a more convenient user experience. This paper reports an ethnographic study of smart home usability and living experience. The purpose of the research was to evaluate three UIs—a PC, a media terminal, and a mobile phone—for smart home environments. The results show two main types of activity patterns, pattern control and instant control, which require different UI solutions. The results suggest that a PC can act as a central unit to control functions for activity patterns that can be planned and determined in advance. The mobile phone, on the other hand, is well suited for instant control. The mobile phone turned out to be the primary and most frequently used UI during the 6-month trial period in the smart apartment. KW - iui09_related_work KW - smarthome AU - Koskela, Tiiu AU - Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Kaisa PY - 2004/// UR - http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1012647.1012660 ER -