Roomba does not clean well
enough; does not make me
save time.
Attitude 1: Rejectors
Attitude 2: Skepticals
1. Practical utility
Roomba is sometimes helpful.
I managed to get rid of some
cleaning sessions.
Attitude 3: Aficionados
– Relevance during adoption process +
2. Physical space
I don’t want to or don’t see why
I should adapt my home.
3. Practical relation to
technology
I don’t see what I have to learn
about Roomba.
I have learned how to use the
technology optimally.
4. Habits
I don’t see either why or how I
should adapt my habits.
I have understood how I have
to adapt my habits.
5. Emotional relation to
technology
Few personal interactions with Roomba. It has become less
fun over time.
6. Social influence
I showed Roomba to some friends.
• Figure 1. Key
adoption criteria
per user groups.
7. Economic utility
What about costs of future spare parts?
March + April 2012
interactions
one of the most important factors
affecting adoption. Interestingly, the
identified criteria match quite well
with those identified in other studies on adoption of technology [ 3, 4].
Factor 1: Practical utility. People
agreed to participate in the study
primarily because they thought
they could spend less time vacu-
uming. Thanks to Roomba after
two months, all three households
that adopted the robot had man-
aged to get rid of some cleaning
tasks. One mother eliminated
her three-times-daily use of the
broom to clean under the kitchen
table. Another mother managed to
use her traditional vacuum only
once a week instead of three to
four times a week. A single man
completely stopped using the tra-
ditional vacuum. For him, Roomba
cleans well enough and solves all
the other inconveniences related
to vacuuming (e.g., previously he
had tied the tubes of his traditional
vacuum cleaner with a rope in order
to store it neatly). In other words,
these three households found that
Roomba enabled a house as clean as
before or cleaner, with less effort. In
contrast, Roomba had not managed
to solve any major pain point for the
skepticals or the rejectors. A rejec-
tor said, “I clean faster and better
than Roomba. I lose time when I’m
using Roomba.”