Abstract
As the number of smart home products entering the market continues to grow at a rapid rate, consideration of data privacy, product design, and sustained usage becomes increasingly important. In this study, adults 50 years of age and older were interviewed to understand user preferences around data privacy communications and their relationship to the longevity of smart home product usage. Participants were presented with various designs of privacy policies to comparatively describe preferences and perceptions. Findings highlight the necessity of integrating privacy communications into the development process of smart home technologies from the beginning rather than treating it as an afterthought. This study discusses guidelines for creating data privacy communications to help designers and developers create smart home products that not only empower users to live independently in their homes as they age but also foster trust, and contribute to a more comfortable and sustainable technological ecosystem.
Keywords
data privacy; smart home technology; privacy-centered design; user experience design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1035
Citation
Vaidya, M., Lee, C., D'Ambrosio, L., and Coughlin, J. (2024) Informed adoption of smart products: A user-centered approach to privacy communications and impact on product use, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1035
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Informed adoption of smart products: A user-centered approach to privacy communications and impact on product use
As the number of smart home products entering the market continues to grow at a rapid rate, consideration of data privacy, product design, and sustained usage becomes increasingly important. In this study, adults 50 years of age and older were interviewed to understand user preferences around data privacy communications and their relationship to the longevity of smart home product usage. Participants were presented with various designs of privacy policies to comparatively describe preferences and perceptions. Findings highlight the necessity of integrating privacy communications into the development process of smart home technologies from the beginning rather than treating it as an afterthought. This study discusses guidelines for creating data privacy communications to help designers and developers create smart home products that not only empower users to live independently in their homes as they age but also foster trust, and contribute to a more comfortable and sustainable technological ecosystem.