WeHub: The Social Center of Smart Homes

Abstract

There is relatively little discussion on the strengthening of interpersonal relationships as a potential benefit of Smart Homes. The social nodes of our households remain largely unaffected by digital support to this day. We propose the design concept WeHub – a flexible tabletop device that enables, supports and enhances a multitude of social practices in order to foster wellbeing in private living contexts. Based on our vision of integrating an interactive table as a central smart furniture-device hybrid into homes, we describe the design of two prototypes that each focus on different factors: I. technical feasibility and II. the envisioned user experience.