AnnoTool: A User-Friendly Annotation Tool for Simple Sensor Data in the Home

As users increasingly have to engage with simple sensor data in home environments, there is an increasing need – and gap – for tools meeting their specific requirements. This work presents a flexible, touch-supported annotation tool for lay users at home, that aims to enhance the usability, quality, and quantity of data annotations through user-centered design. The iterative design process, strongly focusing on user needs, resulted in a tool that proved easy to use for lay users in a field study and shows an increase in both the number and richness of annotations when compared to a previous annotation workflow. While some currently underutilized features of the new solution may only become valuable in long-term use, the tool is well-suited not only for research but also for real-world application and contributes to the broader goal of enabling lay users to better understand and engage with sensor data in their homes.