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Hudson is a smart home system with a central hub display, sensors, and AI to track and manage chore assignments among household members. It can be set up according to every household’s unique needs and syncs with members’ calendars to automatically assign chores and remind roommates when chores need to be done. With Hudson, roommates no longer have to worry about having difficult conversations about unequal workloads or lack of responsiveness - Hudson manages this for them.

💡 Key Insight: Our research found that 35% of college roommates experience conflicts over incomplete chores

Confronting missed assignments is avoided due to:
- Fear of conflict or hurt feelings
- Uncertainty about how to approach the conversation
- Lack of clear processes for managing tasks

Poor communication leads to unequal chore distribution, often leaving one person to take on the majority of the workload, creating tension and frustration.

Formative Studies

Contextual Inquiry

Our team explored opportunities for ubiquitous computing and brainstormed 80 potential concepts for pervasive interaction design. These were then refined through three voting rounds. We ultimately narrowed our focus to three audiences/environments, and conducted in-person contextual inquiry:

Concept 1: Budgeting for Shoppers
- Manage user budgets to simplify shopping
- Participants scanned items while shopping to calculate totals and pay without waiting at registers

‍Concept 2: Remote Work Productivity
- Organize home workspaces for remote workers and parents
- Monitor responsibilities and improve productivity in home offices

‍Concept 3: Chore Management for Roommates
- Simplify life for shared households by distributing chores equally
- Automatically assign and track chores to ensure timely completion

💡 Key Insight: We selected chore management (Concept 3) for its potential impact and opportunity to integrate IoT solutions into shared household systems.
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Diary Study

We conducted a diary study to understand chore patterns, motivations, and frustrations in shared households. This method allowed participants to document routines without requiring direct observation, making it ideal for private home environments.

Overarching Questions:
1. What chores are commonly performed in households?
2. How often are chores completed outside assigned responsibilities?
3. What motivates individuals to complete their chores?

Execution Plan
Recruitment:
- Contacted individuals sharing chores with others in their households
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‍Study Details:
- Duration: 5 days (entries logged twice daily via Google Sheets)
- Participants documented: Assigned and completed chores
- Responsibility for completed chores Satisfaction level (1–5 scale)
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‍Analysis:
- Clustered key insights and recurring themes
- Created personas and journey maps to identify user needs

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‍Key Findings & Insights
💡Finding 1: Methods of Chore Assignments

1. Individual assignment:
- Users individually decides that he or she will complete the chore
- “I do my own dishes after every meal. It wouldn’t be fair for my roommate to take care of my dishes”

2. Pre-discussed assignment
- Households decide how the chore will be split up by taking turns or based on schedules
- “It was my turn to take out the trash and when its [my roommate’s] turn to he should.”

3. Lack of discussion assignment
- Households did not discuss how chores are split up. Individuals freely decide what chores they complete.
- “Never really discussed whose responsibility this was. Whoever sees the trash full should take it out.”

💡Finding 2: Uneven Distribution of Chores
- There is likely an uneven distribution of chore assignment across households leading to some individuals taking the brunt of the responsibility for chore completion
- "I mostly take care of the chores at home"

💡Finding 3: Incomplete Chores‍
- Incomplete chores become the entire household’s responsibility. Many participants cited completing another individuals chores in the diary study
- "roommate leaving dishes in the sink annoyed me, making me do dishes twice in one day"

Survey

To better understand broader demographic behaviors and attitudes toward chore assignments, we conducted a survey to complement the diary study. This survey provided insights into household behaviors, habits, and motivations related to chore management.
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Overarching Questions:
1. How do households track individual chores and responsibilities?
2. How often are chores performed daily?
3. How do households resolve conflicts related to chores?

Execution Plan
Recruitment:
- Distributed via University of Michigan channels
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Survey Details:
- Questions: 20 (multiple choice, scale, and short-answer)
- Participants: Household members (age 22–55) who share chore responsibilities
- Duration: 5 days, estimated completion time of 5 minutes
- Platform: Designed on Qualtrics.

Key Findings and Insights:
💡Finding 1: Tracking Chore Assignments
- Most households do not track chore assignments
- Verbal check-ins, commonly used, are often ineffective
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💡 Finding 2: Conflict with Chore Assignments
- Many respondents reported conflicts over chores
- Current resolution strategies often fail to ensure task completion
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💡Finding 3: Tracking Chore Assignments
- Respondents typically complete 0–2 chores daily
- Completing more chores often leads to perceptions of unequal workload distribution
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The smart home system simplifies household chore management by automating assignments and tracking completion. It eliminates the need for difficult conversations or unequal task distribution, making chore management efficient and stress-free for roommates.

1. Introduction and Setup:
- Central display installed in a communal area
- Sensors and cameras placed strategically (e.g., trash cans, sinks)
- Companion app downloaded for calendar synchronization

2. Personalization:
- Users input schedules, preferences, and chore preferences
- Sensors configured to recognize individual roommates and monitor chore areas

3. Daily Routine:
- Morning: Personalized chores displayed on the central hub via proximity detection
- Daytime: Dynamic chore assignments updated on the hub and app with reminders sent as due dates approach

4. Chore Completion:
- Users mark chores as completed via the hub or app
- Sensors and AI verify task completion for added accountability

5. Conflict Resolution:
- System highlights uncompleted tasks and suggests resolutions, such as reassignment or scheduling discussions
- Feedback from roommates allows for continuous system improvements

5. Adaptation and Learning:
- The system learns from behavior over time, refining task assignments and reminders to align with changing schedules
- Features are updated based on user feedback to enhance efficiency and satisfaction

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1. Install the central hub in a shared space and strategically place sensors (e.g., in trash cans or cleanliness areas)
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2. Download the companion app to sync calendars and preferences
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3. Configure settings for household routines, ensuring a personalized and efficient setup tailored to individual needs

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- A central display acts as the hub for chore management, presenting tasks, statuses, and updates in real-time
- Bluetooth proximity sensors detect when a user is near the display, triggering personalized chore notifications
- Additional proximity sensors gauge the status of specific tasks, such as the fullness of trash bins
- Cameras equipped with AI assess cleanliness in communal areas like lounges and kitchens, identifying areas that require attention

- Chore assignment AI dynamically allocates tasks among roommates, ensuring an equitable distribution
- Dynamic task tracking updates chore statuses in real time, adjusting as tasks are completed or reassigned
- Proximity computation integrates with the system's hardware to personalize user interactions based on their physical presence

A key limitation of Hudson is its reliance on advanced technologies like sensors and cameras, which may raise privacy concerns and require high accuracy to function effectively. If these technologies fail to detect or assign chores correctly, it could lead to unfair distributions and undermine user trust.

Hudson’s setup process poses challenges for physically disabled users, especially when installing cameras and sensors.
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To address this:
- Explore strategies to simplify installation or provide setup assistance
- Include features that support multiple modalities (e.g., visual, auditory) to ensure accessibility for users with physical, visual, or auditory impairments
- Focus on creating a system manageable for all users, regardless of physical limitations.

Expand Survey Efforts:
- Increase sample size beyond the initial 30 participants to capture diverse experiences and preferences
- Conduct a larger survey to gather statistically significant data for system refinement
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‍Further Usability Testing:
- Refine the user interface based on feedback
- Test interactions and ensure chore assignment and tracking work seamlessly in real-world settings
- Iterate based on repeated testing cycles to improve user experience and functionality