Conceptualizing and measuring quality of experience of the internet of things: Exploring how quality is perceived by users

The exponential development of the Internet of Things (IoT) makes it essential to cater to the quality expectations of end users. Quality of experience (QoE) can become the guiding paradigm for managing quality provisions and application designs in the IoT. This study examines the relationship between consumer experiences, the quality perception of IoT, and subsequently develops a conceptual model for QoE in personal informatics. Using an ethnographic observation, the study first characterizes the quality of service (QoS) and subjective evaluations to compare QoS with QoE. Then, a user survey is conducted to identify user behavior factors in personal informatics. Finally, a user experience model is proposed, conceptualizing QoE specific to personal informatics and highlighting its relationships with other factors. The model establishes a foundation for IoT service categories through a heuristic quality assessment tool from a user-centered perspective. The results overall provide the groundwork for developing future IoT services with QoE requirements and for dimensioning the underlying network provisioning infrastructures, particularly with regard to wearable technologies.