Considerable research has been conducted on smart services and technologies over the past decades, and the realization of smart environments has been one of the important research themes in housing studies. However, there is a lack of evaluation of the effects of those technologies on user experience from a cognitive perspective. This paper reviews the evaluation methods adopted in user studies of healthy smart homes. The review of user studies would enable the consolidation of knowledge to develop appropriate evaluation strategies for investigating user experience of smart services and technologies. Through an exhaustive search on contents pages of articles, different strategies for user studies were examined that span a range of experimental settings and analysis methods. These strategies can potentially work together in complementary ways to provide insights into user experience of healthy smart homes. The review highlighted research issues on user experience to be addressed for smart environments, giving valuable insights on cognitive paradigms to develop guide for smart services and technologies, which would ultimately encourage user satisfaction and foster sensibility.
Designer-oriented space design has been transferred to user-oriented space design that considers users' emotions as well as the functions of the space, producing a multi-sensory space. Further, with the advent of embedded digital media and information technology in a space, various interface functions of the space have been developed and the user experience in the space has been much extended. This research investigated user experience and emotional aspects of a space's design, which have been sparsely researched previously. Further, authors emphasize not only the emotion expression of the space, but also the interaction of people and space for the embodiment of the emotions from a wider perspective. Authors reviewed multidisciplinary literatures and compared various methodologies of measurement. Based on the understanding of the studies on the measurement of emotion, authors developed measures of emotion in interaction associated with spaces. The strength of the research is the focus on the integration of the space with technologies and user experiences from a new perspective in emotion research, rather than concentrating only on the architecture components of the buildings themselves. Through empirical studies, the measurements of emotion in architectural spaces can be verified and elaborated.
The global trend of increasing longevity has brought an enormous challenge to develop smart technologies to preserve independence and quality of life among the elderly in their own residences. By combining smart devices, occupants' capabilities can be extended. The concept of 'healthy smart home' was introduced and numerous research projects have implemented a variety of prototypes and state-of-the-art of smart systems. However, there is little research on the elderly's interactions and experiences in smart homes using systematic methods. The interactions of the elderly with digital devices, and further, the smart space, should be intuitive; otherwise the smart space would become an uncomfortable environment, thus displeasing the elderly. The focus of this paper is on user interfaces, especially those targeted to support the elderly's healthy home life. Through a critical review on representative design principles for the elderly, specific criteria related to usability and user experience were defined and structuralized into a framework of user interfaces. For identifying the features of the ageing-friendly interfaces, the elderly's reduced capabilities were considered, with a focus on assistive technologies. The proposed framework could be a basis for the perspectives of future research directions on user interfaces for the elderly in smart environments.
In development of ageing-friendly environments, the evolving social and technical requirements of the elderly have often not been adequately taken into account. A more in-depth understanding of the needs, preferences and social and technical dispositions of the pre-elderly (late 40s and 50s) would provide an enhanced perspective regarding the usability of smart environments. The pre-elderly would have different characteristics from those who are elderly at present. They are more skilled than the present-day elderly at using information technologies such as email, social networking services and smart phones. As they continue to age, the pre-elderly will need environments equipped with smart technologies for use in self-development and professional work. This is especially the case, as it is anticipated that the elderly of the future will have high levels of health and activity. This study involved intensive interviews with several double-income couples in their 40s. The couples’ future desires and requirements for enabling technologies and smart home workspaces were identified. A conceptual framework for a smart workspace was developed based on a first interview with each participating couple. This framework was verified by feedback derived from a second interview. In conclusion, a direction for the design of a smart workspace was proposed.
One of the critical issues in housing is to develop and adopt effective strategies for enhancing a "sense of community" among residents, eventually revitalizing contemporary housing complex communities. Based on the assumption that the characteristics of contemporary communities might differ from those of traditional communities, this research aims to reinterpret strategies for the activation of communities in a current context. By incorporating a "smart paradigm", this paper introduces the concept of the smart community and considers the potential of mobile augmented reality as a strategy for activating communities. Mobile augmented reality is expected to extend people's interactions within the virtual world, combining with social networks to enable sustainable relationships among housing complex residents and producing collective intelligence that will contribute to a new type of community. This research conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate the conditions in current communities, residents' perceptions and demands on a smart community. Based on the results of the survey, persona scenarios were developed and a smart community model was then constructed by proposing applicable technologies and services extracted from the persona scenarios.
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