Acceptability of Nomadic User Interfaces: An investigation upon user perceptions

In-home nomadic user interfaces are expected to enhance the quality of domestic life. They will increase mobility as users will be able to move freely within the home, maintaining the technology-mediated activity regardless of devices’ user interface attributes, and enhance the interaction in terms of efficiency, experience, and sociability, as users will be able to move applications to other, than the predefined devices. This approach may take advantage of distributed user interface (UI) elements rather than restricting the user to the range of UI elements offered by each device. However, nomadic user interfaces are confronted with the complexity of inhome social interactions. Recent research attempts have illustrated the uniqueness of the home setting. Homes are not designed to accommodate technology, while in-home interactions are highly distributed in time and space. Families are not structured organisations: users range from babies to old age pensioners, while there are no clear rights in domestic interactions and the notion of training does not exist. Furthermore, domestic technologies change and are changed by the social relations that they mediate. Thus, the perceived usefulness, ease of use, and implications of nomadic user interfaces in the home life are expected to be crucial to the concept’s acceptability within this highly technology-defended setting. A study was conducted to investigate the user perceptions of in-home nomadic user interfaces. Eight pairs of users were recruited for two-hour sessions that were conducted at Philips HomeLab, a laboratory that feels and looks like a real home. Emphasis was paid towards couples, as it is believed that such sessions are accompanied by richer reflections. The study showed that user perceptions may significantly restrict the added value of nomadic user interfaces for given activities, in given regions, or with given devices. In addition, nomadic user interfaces bring a radically different interaction paradigm. Thus, we need to consider the conceptual model that is communicated to the user and take into account the nature of the given activity, as well as the interaction/social interaction affordances of domestic spaces and devices. Nomadic user interfaces will enhance the quality of domestic life only if their development is driven by human needs. Further attempts need to introduce the concept to real life and examine its acceptance through long-term studies.