Understanding User Requirements for Self-Created IoT Health Assistant Systems

Over recent decades, with the fast growth of urbanization, new health-related issues have resulted from the changed lifestyles. People have become more sedentary. They suffer from fully-packed calendars, which does not give them enough time to care for their physical and psychological well-being. While this is a growing challenge, advancements made in internet of things (IoT) devices in the private context offer the chance to develop applications that tackle these issues. While many such applications have been envisioned, the user’s views and requirements for them remain unclear. To better understand this, we conducted a literature review in which we identified the four most common health-related scenarios in which such technologies are used. Next, we conducted an online survey (N=80), in which participants envisioned how smart home devices could realize these scenarios. Based on the results, we derive design implications that show that users value a high degree of customization and the ability to select a specific automation level through an all-in-one, easy-to-use platform.