Smart Homes to Support the Wellness and Pleasurable Experience of Residents

Abstract

This chapter introduces the design of smart homes to support residents’ wellness and pleasurable experience. Smart homes should contribute to the heathy and happy living of their occupants by incorporating various technologies and devices into a domestic setting. Further, the design of smart homes should provide occupants with pleasurable experiences by the implementation of intuitive interfaces using a user-centered approach. The success of a smart home is dependent on its occupants’ acceptance of and engagement with it in the context of daily living; thus, more specific user studies should be conducted to implement a positive technology to fulfill users’ daily needs. This chapter first identifies the main issues for the design of smart homes by critically reviewing the related research and then frames the crucial factors, emphasizing wellness and pleasurable experience for consideration in the construction of smart homes. A framework for the design of smart homes was developed by focusing on the practicability of each variable from the perspective of supporting user experience. By utilizing the framework, more customized design factors that must be considered in the creation of smart homes could be developed to target user groups with support for their health and happiness.KeywordsSmart homeUser-centered approachWellnessPleasurable experienceConceptual framework