Towards the design of intelligible object-based applications for the Web of Things

As more and more things, sensors, appliances and devices are getting connected to the Internet, researchers of the Web of Things community have recently been exploring the use of the World Wide Web as a platform for smart objects. Such technology enables the creation of object-based applications mixing real-world objects that embed tiny Web servers with existing Web resources. To ensure the adoption of such applications, which potentially modify the behaviors of objects, it is needed that the overall system or architecture supports the mental models developed by users. In this paper, we propose a definition of object-based applications based on the literature review and present a protocol aiming at better understanding users' perception of smart environments. We then present our preliminary results and highlight the need of creating intelligible systems and tools.