Living as a Service (LaaS): An Experiment to Evaluate Living Experience in Connected Homes in the Netherlands

User-centric approaches to technological interfaces have increasingly surfaced in the recent times. In smart homes, this manifests in the form of how people adapt and interact with devices, and the set up as a whole. This study aims to analyze the behavioral aspects of living in a smart home through interview and structured survey-based interactions with 21 families in the Netherlands who were provided a predefined set of smart devices for about three weeks. We evaluate user experience with smart devices through four stages of smart home adoption. Based on user behavior and motivations, we find four personas emerging, namely convenience-oriented, safety-oriented, cautiously supportive and sustainability-oriented. The study finds a positive experience predominantly with smart home devices when they are delivered and integrated in a manner that serves user's priorities in a home. Future directions incorporating user preferences in smart home design are discussed.