Abstract
One of the most evident symptoms of the SARS-CoV-2 infection is fever. In response to the ongoing health emergency, Thermoscanners are becoming more and more popular to measure citizens’ body temperatures in many public places. Indeed, they can be a useful tool for preventing the spreading of Covid-19. Most of the current research focused on understanding people’s decisions in the use of protective behaviors related to physical health and health risk perceptions, but still the acceptance and the user-experience related to the adoption and use of thermoscanner is unexplored. This paper explores the attitudes and behaviors towards a thermoscanner located at a public office in two different scenarios: a larger office accessible to employees and visitors and a smaller office with only employees. To this end, data in the field were collected, including self-reported quantitative ratings (i.e., questionnaire) and behavioral observations. Overall, participants (N = 206) showed a general positive attitude toward using the thermoscanner in public spaces and a propensity to comply with the rule of measuring temperature. Interestingly, external users report to perceive the public environment safer thanks to presence of the thermoscanner compared to employees. This finding suggests that employees have clearer the preventive role of the termoscanner. Finally, this study provides a series of guidelines for implementing an efficient large-scale monitoring tool on the territory, enhancing a correct users behavior.
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Bettelli, A., Orso, V., Pernice, G.F.A., Corradini, F., Fabbri, L., Gamberini, L. (2021). Too Hot to Enter: Investigating Users’ Attitudes Toward Thermoscanners in COVID Times. In: Kurosu, M. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction. Design and User Experience Case Studies. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12764. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78468-3_17
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