What Do We Design for When We Design "Smart Buildings"? - A Scoping Review of Human Experience Design Research in Buildings

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Challenges and Issues: This paper explores the challenges of experience design in human interaction with intelligent built environments. It identifies a phenomenon of dispersed goals and diverse methodologies in the field of smart buildings, particularly a lack of comprehensive understanding of human experiences beyond traditional "comfort" evaluations.
• Significance of the Issue: Smart buildings optimize living and working environments by embedding interactive technologies, potentially altering users' perceptions, behaviors, and values. However, due to the absence of systematic classification of experience types and clear guidance on design methods, current research struggles to fully realize the interdisciplinary potential of smart buildings.
• Research Motivation and Related Work: While many studies address issues at the intersection of "Human-Computer Interaction" (HCI) and architecture in smart buildings, few systematically review comprehensive human experiences in smart buildings or clearly summarize specific interaction design mechanisms and technological interventions.

Solution

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:

  1. The authors conducted a review of 192 papers published between 1996 and 2024, constructing a classification of 11 types of "targeted human experiences" in smart buildings.
  2. They summarized 20 commonly used "design mechanisms" and proposed 7 types of technological interventions for interaction design in smart buildings.
  3. A mixed deductive-inductive coding method was employed to systematically classify and thematically analyze the literature.

• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:

  1. A systematic framework for target experiences in smart buildings was proposed, expanding beyond "comfort" to encompass broader experiences such as emotional engagement, democratic participation, and future exploration.
  2. The interdisciplinary potential within smart building design frameworks was identified, integrating architecture with interaction design in practice.
  3. A new layer of "Extended Reality Space" was introduced, capturing the temporality and flexibility of emerging technologies in smart buildings.

• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:

  1. Data Collection and Analysis: Relevant studies were retrieved from the ACM Digital Library and Scopus using a keyword-based search strategy.
  2. Literature Screening and Coding: Papers were screened based on customized criteria and analyzed using a five-step scoping review framework.
  3. Classification and Induction:
     • Identified 11 types of "human experiences," such as comfort, emotional engagement, physical experience, exploratory experience, etc.
     • Summarized 20 design mechanisms, including personalization, participatory design, immersive technology design, etc.
     • Categorized 7 technological interventions, such as interactive displays, shape-changing interfaces, and physiological sensors.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Achievements:

  • Defined 11 targeted human experiences in smart buildings, explaining how these experiences are shaped through 20 design mechanisms and 7 technological interventions.
  • Proposed an analysis model based on the temporal dimension of architecture (e.g., the addition of an "Extended Reality Space" layer) and classified the application of technologies across the building lifecycle.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  1. Compared to traditional focuses on comfort, functionality, or energy consumption, this research captures a more comprehensive range of human interaction diversity and complexity in smart buildings.
  2. Established a systematic framework for smart building design research, providing foundational structures for future studies on topics such as democratic design, social justice, and bodily perception.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Using a "mixed coding thematic analysis" method, the study revealed trends in the literature, such as a renewed focus on comfort over the past decade and recent exploratory focus on futuristic and bodily experiences.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations in Literature Screening: The use of interaction-focused keywords (e.g., "interac*") may have overlooked discussions on human experiences in non-HCI mainstream fields.
  • Disciplinary Bias: The classification of design mechanisms and experiences may be influenced by the authors' research backgrounds, necessitating broader multidisciplinary perspectives in the future.
  • Practical Application and Evaluation: While the study comprehensively summarizes existing design mechanisms, further research is needed for quantitative evaluation of experiences and long-term measurement of user impacts.
  • Integration of Emerging Technologies: The role of AI (including generative AI and lightweight models) in smart building design is currently limited. Further exploration is needed regarding its potential environmental impacts (e.g., energy consumption) and application scenarios.

In summary, this study systematically reviews the diverse challenges and potential pathways in smart building design and provides a panoramic perspective for research on smart building experience design. Future directions include integrating environmental and social justice, exploring the technological potential of generative AI, and developing innovative evaluation frameworks for multisensory environmental experiences.