Influential Factors in the Adoption of Wearable and Environmental IoT-Enabled Smart Devices and Application to Cognitive-Affective Engineering Design

Abstract As more IoT-enabled smart devices enter the market, there is a need to understand which consumers are attracted to what types of smart devices and why. This study examines how user experience, privacy beliefs, and motivation influence wearable and environmental smart devices adoption by college students and their parents in the United States. Therefore, this paper uniquely addresses the affective-cognitive factors of IoT adoption that can inform the future design of wearable and environmental smart devices. Based on a survey of 84 participants (42 pairs of college students and their parents), the findings suggest that college students preferred wearable smart devices and their parents, environmental smart devices. There were differences in how these smart devices were used and perceived by each group. Principal component analysis resulted in three components that influence attitude, intentions, and behaviors toward wearable and environmental smart devices adoption and use. The three components were: User Experience, Privacy Beliefs, and Motivation. Being a power user, ease of use, enjoyment, usefulness, risk beliefs, trust beliefs, social influences, and willingness to pay loaded on these components and were constructs of significance. These findings have implications for education and practice, in addition to the technical requirements, of engineering design to address user needs and preferences from a human-centered perspective.