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.”