Smart Homes — Rising Success or Utter Failure?
This post is designed as a preliminary research study. No actual data or study was performed but simply outlined. Due to this, no strong conclusion can be drawn, simply the thesis questions provided. This paper will walk through the main background for the study followed by the research questions it aims to answer along with the methodology and in depth work plan to execute.
Background
Smart homes have been around for roughly six years now with the introduction of the Amazon Alexa quickly follow by devices like Google Home and Apple HomePod. While the initial hype had taken over the consumer market, it seems as though this has now died down. During the period of hype there were questions and concerns about devices connecting to these hub devices and how they may work between them. This pushed users towards one device over another and may have caused others to purchase multiple devices. There were also pushes to buy “mini” home devices like these, allowing them to work in tandem across the home. Virtual assistants were installed into these home devices, allowing users to ask them questions. They could even connect to their original devices to either track questions asked or to help provide information from their phones like grocery lists or important dates. It seems these virtual home devices are being switched into more like a smart speaker system rather than a device that will connect other devices to it.
Research Questions
This study aims to understand how many users own what types of smart home hubs, devices connected to those smart homes, and how often they use these devices per day and for what. Our thesis is that multiple users do have Smart Home devices but do not use them on a daily or even weekly basis unless for the use of the speaker itself for music rather than its connecting capabilities.
Research Methodology
Research will be conducted over the course of one (1) month and will have participants keep track of their usage of these devices through an only portal or app device. Participants will log daily usage of their device and make notes of what devices they have in their homes. There is to be an expected drop off in participation through out the course of the month so having the large sample size will be imperative. Even if there is interest drop off we will still be able to obtain information to answer some of the generic questions like which home device is most common and how well devices connect to them.
Plan of Work
The study will search out participants through email, fliers, and social media. Targeted sample size of 500 users with a targeted demographic of users between the ages of 25–40. Research will be conducted over the course of a month, longer if user interest is there. Data is to be collected and charted out to get a better visual understanding of devices across the sample size. Participants will be provided with the following questionnaire:
1.) What Smart Home device do you own?
2.) How long have you owned your Smart Home device?
3.) In a typical week, how often do you use your Smart Home device? i.e. Asking questions or having it turn on devices.
4.) Do you have any other devices connected to your Smart Home? What devices?
5.) Has your usage of the Smart Home device gone up or down since your initial purchase?
6.) At what period did this usage change? One month? One year?
7.) What made you purchase a Smart Home device to begin with?
8.) Why did you choose the Smart Home device you use now? (If it was gifted, would you have preferred a different one?)
9.) Do you have multiple Smart Home devices?
10.) Do you have any concerns about your Smart Home device? Security or otherwise.
Participants should dedicate a few sentences to each question when possible to give the best results. This questionnaire is separate from the other part of the study which will be tracking their usage of the Smart Home device. The tracking portion will cover different areas of usage like for music, questions, or for controlling their devices. These tracking questions should be basic and numbered, nothing complex or too thought out as participants may not want to answer if it becomes too much.
