Act 2.0: The Next Generation of Assistive Consumer Technology Research

Purpose – This paper seeks to review current research on assistive consumer technologies (ACT 1.0) and to discuss a series of research challenges that need to be addressed before the field can move towards tools that are more effective and more readily adopted by consumers (ACT 2.0). Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper. The perspective, commensurate with the current research and areas of expertise, is that of consumer researchers. Findings – The paper argues that, while substantial advances have been made in the technical design of ACTs – and the algorithms that power recommendation systems, there are substantial barriers to wide-scale consumer adoption of such tools that need to be addressed. In particular, future ACT designs will need to better integrate current research in human judgment and decision making to improve the ease with which such tools can be used. Originality/value – From the perspective of consumer researchers, the paper highlights a set of key areas of enquiry that have the potential to substantially advance assistive consumer technology research.