Family accounts: a new paradigm for user accounts within the home environment

In this paper we present Family Accounts, a new user account model for shared home computers. We conducted a study with sixteen families, eight who used individual profiles at home, and eight who shared a single profile. Our results demonstrate that Family Accounts is a good compromise between a single shared profile and individual profiles for each family member. In particular, we observed that because Family Accounts allowed individuals to switch profiles without forcing them to interrupt their tasks, family members tended to switch to their own profiles only when a task required some degree of privacy or personalization. Author Keywords Home computers, user account models, personalization, ubiquitous computing, access control, and file sharing. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI):

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CSCW
• Authors: Serge Egelman, A. J. Bernheim Brush, Kori M. Inkpen
• Keywords: CSCW 2008, Family Accounts, Individual Profiles, Social Sciences, User Account Models