An investigation into the use of smart home devices, user preferences, and impact during COVID-19

Moojan Ghafurian; Colin Ellard; Kerstin Dautenhahn

doi:10.1016/j.chbr.2023.100300

An investigation into the use of smart home devices, user preferences, and impact during COVID-19

Comput Hum Behav Rep. 2023 Jun 6:100300. doi: 10.1016/j.chbr.2023.100300. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Moojan Ghafurian¹, Colin Ellard², Kerstin Dautenhahn¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
² Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.

Abstract

With the goal of designing smart environments that can support users' physical/mental well-being, we studied users' experiences and different factors that can influence success of smart home devices through an online study conducted during and after the COVID-19 restrictions in June 2021 (109 participants) and March 2022 (81 participants). We investigated what motivates users to buy smart home devices, and if smart home devices may have the potential to improve different aspects of users' well-being. As COVID-19 emphasized a situation where people spent a significant amount of time at home in Canada, we also asked if/how COVID-19 motivated purchase of smart-home devices and how these devices affected participants during the pandemic. Our results provide insights into different aspects that may motivate the purchase of smart home devices and users' concerns. The results also suggest that there may be correlations between the use of specific types of devices and psychological well-being.

Keywords: COVID-19; Mental well-being; Smart devices; Smart home; User concerns.