로봇청소기 모니터링의 사용성 강화를 위한 인터페이스 디자인 연구–로보락, 삼성, 엘지 스마트홈 앱을 중심으로– = A Study on Interface Design for Enhancing the Usability of Robot Vacuum Cleaner Monitoring­Focusing on the Smart Home Applications of Roborock, Samsung, and LG­

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Background: In the IoT-based digital era, robot vacuum cleaners have expanded from simple cleaning devices into smart home appliances that manage living spaces through smart home applications. Among their various functions, monitoring features such as real-time space observation, remote control, pet care, and security have become increasingly important. However, the monitoring interfaces of current robot vacuum applications often have complex structures, making it difficult for users to recognize, access, and efficiently use these functions.
Methods: This study comparatively analyzed the monitoring interfaces of smart home applications from three major home appliance brands in Korea: Roborock, Samsung, and LG. Based on previous studies, usability evaluation criteria were derived by integrating visual interface elements and user interface evaluation principles. The monitoring usage flow was reorganized into three stages: monitoring access, device control, and status management. Each stage was analyzed to identify usability problems, and improvement directions and prototypes were proposed.
Results: The analysis identified both usability-impairing and usability-enhancing UI elements. In the monitoring access stage, unclear entry paths reduced accessibility and recognizability. In the device control stage, overlapping navigation on the real-time camera screen, low visual contrast, small buttons, and bottom-positioned controls reduced visibility and operability. In the status management stage, saving images and checking results through the settings path reduced efficiency. In contrast, notifications, tab bars, navigation, toggle switches, and map graphics were identified as elements that improve accessibility, controllability, and information delivery efficiency.
Conclusion: Based on these findings, this study proposed clearer monitoring entry buttons, separation of icons, navigation, and camera screens, map-based graphics for remote control, and tab bar-based saving with graphic-centered result checking. This study is meaningful in that it redefines monitoring functions in robot vacuum cleaner applications as a core user experience element for spatial observation and remote control. It also provides practical implications for designing smart appliance UIs with monitoring functions, particularly regarding independent entry structures, separation of camera screens and controls, and map-based information structures.