Intelligent homecare systems: An exploration of system requirements from a user's perspective

Recent technical developments have paved the way for various types of intelligent homecare services, yet, the needs and wants of potential users who have to live in such environments are still largely unexplored today. Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing (1) the requirements that future homecare systems have to meet as well as (2) the influences of personal user factors of the perceived importance of these requirements. In a pre-study with N = 31 participants, discretion, data security, control and avoidance of stigmatization have been identified as fundamental system requirements. The four requirements were explored in more detail in a main study with N = 461 participants. The results show that all aspects were regarded as rather important, however, the differences in the perception of the various aspects were quite distinctive.