Design Guidelines for Contextual Awareness and Management of Hygiene in Daily Life with Infectious Viruses

Abstract

Hygiene management is important in reducing the danger of viral infection. Although various methods for hygiene management need to be considered depending on the context such as space, people, and activity, previous attempts do not consider these contexts. This implies the need for considering more contextual situations on hygiene management systems. Hence, we explored what hygiene-related data need to be received to prevent infectious diseases and how the data can be delivered to users based on different contexts. To address the above issues, we analyzed previous hygiene management systems to determine which types of devices exist and their features and we conducted a design workshop to determine potential product design based on the space the workshop participants visit and the objects interact by creating virtual personas. We derived design guidelines for future hygiene management devices based on different contexts. First, the device should induce users to notice the hygiene conditions of their private space without being overwhelmed by relief. Second, the system should help users to feel relief in a public space by providing a concrete status. Third, typical misunderstandings about hygiene could be used for assisting users to intuitively obtain information about hygiene. As a result, we could derive new design guidelines for hygiene management systems from the perspectives of users’ attention and relief to hygiene status, along with misunderstandings of typical cleanness, which implied design guidelines of future hygiene management devices. Specifically, the personal/public items, smart products and home electronics can be designed by considering users’ routines and perceptions about hygiene in private to public spaces.