Description #
This research investigated the complexity of onboarding smart-home devices from users’ perspectives, with a particular focus on the emerging Matter IoT standard and its promise to unify the fragmented smart-home ecosystem. Smart-home devices have become integral to daily routines, yet their onboarding procedures, from unboxing to full operational status, remained understudied. The project examined 12 commercially available smart-home devices spanning a wide range of categories (hubs, cameras, switches, bulbs, plugs, sensors), covering both Matter-compatible and non-Matter-compatible devices across multiple wireless protocols including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread. The research aimed to answer three key questions: what are the onboarding processes for contemporary devices, what challenges do consumers encounter, and what strategies can enhance the user experience. A critical finding was that Matter’s promised seamless interoperability was not fully delivered in practice — some manufacturers claimed Matter compatibility but required old-school onboarding through companion apps and firmware updates before enabling Matter features. The research culminated in a peer-reviewed paper published and presented at ACM HotMobile 2024 (25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications) in San Diego, CA.
My Role #
As an undergraduate researcher, I performed cognitive walkthroughs on the onboarding processes of the 12 selected smart-home devices, systematically documenting every action, prompt, and observation during setup across both iOS and Android platforms. I tested devices using both device-specific companion apps (e.g., Kasa, Tapo, Eve) and platform apps (Google Home, Apple Home, Amazon Alexa), recording detailed narrative logs for each device/smartphone combination. My work involved analyzing onboarding flows, including preparation, app configuration, device pairing, and device configuration steps, and identifying commonalities and distinctions across vendors. I documented usability challenges such as inconsistent Matter compliance, confusing Thread Border Router requirements, and the burden of repeated Wi-Fi credential entry and account registration. I contributed to developing enhancement recommendations, including automatic home Wi-Fi connection, frictionless payload retrieval, and streamlined user registration. I co-authored the resulting paper accepted to ACM HotMobile 2024 alongside Chixiang Wang, Weijia He, Timothy J. Pierson, and David Kotz.
Publication #
This research was published as a peer-reviewed paper at ACM HotMobile 2024 (The 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications), held February 28–29, 2024 in San Diego, CA, USA.
Full Citation:
Chixiang Wang, Liam Cassidy, Weijia He, Timothy J. Pierson, and David Kotz. 2024. Challenges and opportunities in onboarding smart-home devices. In The 25th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HOTMOBILE '24), February 28–29, 2024, San Diego, CA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages.
The paper is available open access through the ACM Digital Library (DOI 10.1145/3638550.3641137).
As of the latest available metrics, the paper has received 6 citations and 517 downloads. The workshop was sponsored by ACM SIGMOBILE.