Understanding Our Community: The 2024 Home Assistant Survey

[Deez]

Hi there, just completed the survey, and some extra feedback:

• The half way submission is a great idea, I probably just missed it, but I didn’t see it as an option.
• The survey is quite long (and I’m quite slow), perhaps even having a quarter / three quarter submission options would be good.
• The end of the survey snuck up on me and I didn’t get a chance to say that Home Assistant is a really important part of my life, so I just wanted to thank you and the entire team for the fantastic and important work you do.

[nickrout]

Clearly you didn’t read the announcement.

[Mark_M (Mark)]

@system

Your data

First and foremost, the survey is entirely anonymous, and you can skip any question you don’t want to answer. For sensitive questions (e.g., gender), we provide options like “prefer not to say” or open text fields.

Once collected, the data will be anonymized and aggregated to ensure your privacy. Because we cannot identify individual responses, certain data rights (like deletion requests) won’t be applicable after submission. Please note around halfway through the survey there is a partial submit point, once you click continue the previous answers will be recorded. The data will be stored and handled according to GDPR standards. For more details, see our User Research Agreement.

I am pleased this is ‘anonymised’.
The amount of information asked put together would be very uniquely identifiable.

Is the data released going to include everything said in ‘other’ and [type here] answers?

[smartin]

What I am missing:
All Questions are about the Status Quo, not covering what my Goals, Wishes or next Steps are.

[koying (Chris B)]

Speaking of accessibility, I didn’t even know that ‘neurodivergent’ was a word😄
I also learnt that some prefers to be addressed as “they”…

[Hedda]

@system

… we’re launching an annual survey—and we hope you’ll participate!

A big part of building our roadmap going forward was focusing more on research, which led the team to bring me (Annika) in as a Senior User Experience Researcher. We could keep assuming our community’s wants and needs, but we’d rather base our decisions on data-driven insights . With this survey, we aim to better understand not just how you use Home Assistant, but also who you are as a person, a smart home user, and a member of our community. …

Somewhat related to this (as well as the 2024 year-end roadmap update blog post) is that have previously seen that Annika also posted a less formal forum thread with an open question to the community about Best Practices for a Private Smart Home So recommend that anyone interested in providing suggestions and feedback also that check out that thread too here:

Best Practices for a Private Smart Home

Hello Home Assistant Users! I’m Annika, I recently joined Nabu Casa as a UX Researcher. We’re currently investigating how Home Assistant can better support in evaluating and protecting a home’s privacy. If you want to help us, we’d be happy to learn about your approaches, thoughts, and experiences. Imagine the following scenario: A close friend/family member/colleague is moving into their new home and finally has the chance to set up the smart home they’ve always wanted. They trust your advice…

As I interpret her post there, I believe she is asking us to reply in that thread with our lists of both general and specific best practices you would recommend that everyone should try to follow in order to better protect their digital privacy when about begin with a totally new smart home setup from scratch without having to reuse any legacy components, and as such specifically targeting a proposed scenario where someone who is planning to move to a new house/apartment, so I assume that means starting from a clean slate that lacks constraints imposed by prior smart home solutions that person may have, (which in technical jargon/terminology is commonly referred to as a greenfield project).

[anakinsbrn (Annika Schulz)]

@Mark_M

I am pleased this is ‘anonymised’.
The amount of information asked put together would be very uniquely identifiable.

Is the data released going to include everything said in ‘other’ and [type here] answers?

Don’t worry—we’ll only share aggregated and summarized insights from the responses. In the free-text answers, we’re looking at overall patterns and themes, not sharing anything word-for-word.

[petro]

If you read the post, you’ll see the intent of the survey:

@system

We’re curious about how you began your smart home journey and what drives your decisions today in your home. From the types of devices you use to how your household interacts with your smart home. We want to learn who is using Home Assistant, not just the primary user, but also those living in your smart home. These insights allow us to understand the varied experiences and expertise within the community. For example, knowing your professional background helps us identify areas where your day-to-day knowledge intersects with smart home technologies. We are also asking about neurodiversity, which can help us understand how our community processes and interacts with information. By learning about these differences, we can make our communication and platform design more inclusive. Again, we can understand if you prefer not to share this information.

One area we’re trying to understand better is how you personally resonate with the values of the Open Home. We believe in privacy, sustainability, and choice—but how important are these values to you?

[Troon]

One observation: the “matrix” question about interaction with the community was a little unclear. I rarely interact “to solve a problem” that I have; but frequently interact “to solve a problem” that others have.

[francisp (Francis)]

Indeed

[_Mike]

Holy moly! I am happy and eager to contribute to a survey about HA… But this thing is a BEAST. I finally gave up half way through. WAAYYYYYYYY too many questions!

[mrand (Marc Randolph)]

Just going to flag that this question is just ambiguous enough that I wouldn’t trust the responses. Does build ESPhome firmware mean you’re manually compiling the source code (presumably due to customizations), or does it simply refer to running through the (quite simple) compile YAML + download?

[petro]

I assumed it meant “wrote your yaml files and compiled it” vs things like apollo or ratgdo where you download the file and just run it.

[parautenbach (Pieter Rautenbach)]

Thanks for running this survey! It took me 25 min to complete. I’m a slow reader.

[Mahko_Mahko]

Big survey but hey it’s the least I can do…

[smartin]

Yes. Read it. I am missing Questions what my Goals, Wishes or next Steps are.

Im asked about the language we speak at home. Two.
I am asked about if we use Voice Assistant. No.
I am missing the possibility to say “But i would love to make this my next project”.

[petro]

Let me be more clear: This survey isn’t looking for that information.

[smartin]

Yes, it is not.
And this is what I am missing

Edit: Yes, you (They? Nabu Casa? Foundation? Homeassistant) wanna get to know who uses it as of today. And how it started. I think the future Goals are as interesting as the past.

[petro]

And that may come in the future, but that’s not what this survey is about.

The month of WTH is currently about what the users want added in the future.