Home networking: Smart but complicated

Abstract

Internet connection at home has fundamentally changed the way that appliances are designed in the same way that the invention of electricity did. Having efficient and reliable home networking is the key to any modern home. The number of devices that need to be connected to a home networking system increases every day. Computers, televisions, tablets, gaming devices and sound systems are just some of the many appliances that need that connection. Despite the improvements to the hardware of networking devices, re-search shows that the software to set up networking devices along with their configuration are extremely complicated. This paper presents the results of several usability investigations on home networking devices including: a comparative study of different product brands, two series of user surveys, and empirical observations. The results of these investigations show that all of the major brands of home networking appliances use a complex, feature-oriented, rudimentary user interface (UI) design with terms that are understood by a very small percentage of people. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.