Smart home devices are both a trendy glimpse into the future and a mundane reality now, with companies like Google and Amazon latching on to the smart home ecosystem. Google recently provided some more details about its personal assistant, and Home preorders started last week, with the $129 personal assistant on track to ship in November. With Home, Google is placing itself in competition with Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, which have some of the same voice-control and personal assistance characteristics.
Statista took a look at a study run by Experian about how exactly customers use the Amazon Echo. There seems to be a big difference between which functions users try once, just to see how it works, and which functions are used most often. Playing music scores high in both areas. Most users test out using the device to set a timer, but fewer (25 percent) actually use the timer regularly. On the other hand, controlling smart lights is used by a relatively small amount of first-timers (45.9 percent) but is the second most common use for people who use it repeatedly.
Looking at product data like this can help designers see the strengths and weaknesses of their product, including what users find to be most convenient about it and what tasks may be less convenient or nigh-inaccessible to the consumer audience.
