Eliot: um guia para dar suporte à avaliação longitudinal da experiência do usuário em sistemas de Internet das Coisas

Abstract

Consumer-oriented Internet of Things (IoT) systems are increasingly being used to optimize and automate everyday activities. However, despite providing several benefits, these systems are not yet fully integrated into users’ routines, who tend to abandon them or reduce the number of functionalities used over time. Longitudinal User Experience (UX) evaluations are recommended to understand how the user–system relationship evolves and which factors influence this change. Nevertheless, planning such evaluations requires specific knowledge of longitudinal studies, UX, and IoT. In addition, different research motivations and objectives demand distinct methodological strategies. In this context, this work presents Eliot (EvaLuation of Internet of Things), a guide designed to support the planning of longitudinal UX evaluations for IoT systems according to different research goals. Eliot was developed in three stages: (i) a systematic mapping study followed by snowballing to identify concepts, methods, and challenges related to longitudinal UX evaluations in IoT; (ii) the construction of the Eliot guide based on the findings from the literature; and (iii) the evaluation of the guide with ten specialists and students in UX and IoT, who used it to plan a longitudinal study in a fictional scenario and subsequently answered questionnaires regarding its content and navigation. The evaluation indicated that Eliot was considered useful for supporting study planning, with good understanding of its content and organization, although opportunities for future work were identified. The guide is expected to foster the conduction of longitudinal UX studies in IoT and to contribute to understanding how interaction with these systems impacts users’ lives over time, also encouraging similar investigations in other types of systems embedded in everyday contexts.