Abstract
This thesis investigates Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems where users are entities of the system itself: people interact with IoT devices to pursue a specific goal and User-Centered Design principles can be applied in the design of products and services that embeds IoT systems. IoT systems of this kind are User-Centered IoT systems and their context is referred as UCIoT. While an extensive literature about IoT is available, effective guidelines and design patterns for the adoption of UCIoT systems are scarce. Design Science Research Methodology was applied to define a possible framework for the adoption of UCIoT system. An UCIoT ontology artifact is described and presented as a conceptualization that provides the required guidance in the design and adoption of UCIoT systems. Its applicability in the domain is demonstrated through the analysis of two instantiations that are case studies of UCIoT systems designed, developed and released to the public during the course of the research.