The home is a deeply meaningful and human place. It fulfills not only our fundamental physical needs, but also contributes significantly to our sense of belonging and safety. The home is a place where many domestic technologies are currently situated, shaping and being shaped by the complex social and emotional fabric of the home. To innovators in the technology industry, the home is ripe for a new wave of disruption in the form of the smart home.

By zooming in on the use of technology in the home, this research demonstrates that the current state of domestic technology, including the smart home, has not been designed with people and real homes in mind. Technology providers fail to recognize the home as an ultimately human place - complex and filled with opposing values and tensions. As a result, it does not lend itself to be easily programmed into discrete tasks, simple routines or efficient workflows as technology is predisposed to do.

Through the lens of lived everyday experiences, this research offers a critical look at the future of domestic living as shaped by a predominantly techno-centric narrative. The result is an urgent call for change to be led by technology providers, as well as emerging design considerations to the question: how might we rethink domestic technology to better support human-centered values in the home?