Factoring user experience into the security and privacy design of smart home devices: A case study

Conference item

Smart home devices are growing in popularity due to their functionality, convenience, and comfort. However, they are raising security and privacy concerns for users who may have very little technical ability. User experience (UX) focuses on improving user interactions, but little work has investigated how companies factor user experience into the security and privacy design of smart home devices as a means of addressing these concerns. To explore this in more detail, we designed and conducted six in-depth interviews with employees of a large smart home company in the United Kingdom. We analyzed the data using Grounded Theory, and found little evidence that UX is a consideration for the security design of these devices. Based on the results of our study, we proposed user-centered design guidelines and recommendations to improve data protection in smart homes.

Authors: Chalhoub, G; Flechais, I; Nthala, N; Abu-Salma, R; Tom, E

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery
• Host title: Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2020 (CHI 2020)
• Publication date: 2020-04-25
• Acceptance date: 2020-02-07
• Event title: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2020 (CHI 2020)
• Event location: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
• Event website: http://chi2020.acm.org/
• Event start date: 2020-04-25
• Event end date: 2020-04-30
• DOI: 10.1145/3334480.3382850
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR