"Alexa is a Toy": Exploring Older Adults' Reasons for Using, Limiting, and Abandoning Echo

Trajkova, Milka; Martin-Hammond, Aqueasha

doi:10.1145/3313831.3376760

Cited by 101 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…These findings are in line with several recent research studies that highlight the potential of AI and subsets technologies, such as voice recognition and natural language processing (NLP), to support various healthcare and home assistance applications [17,[47][48][49][50][51][52]. These findings also suggest, in line with [17,24,49,52], that voice activated devices and AI-enabled apps (e.g., chatbots), are expected to play an increasing role in the care and support of older people in the near future. On the other hand, technologies that did not reach consensus, such as exoskeletons and VR/MR/AR, or reached it in a few domains, such as robotics, appear to have more technical and potential acceptability issues.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Some of the main reasons for this are lack of perceived value and positive impact of technology on older people’s quality of life as well as lack of confidence in their digital skills [ 19 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. For example, a recent study reported that failure to identify essential uses of Alexa (a voice activated device) was one of the main reasons for abandoning its use by older people over time [ 24 ]. Therefore, there is arguably a need to further explore the potential of emerging technologies and highlight their potential uses and benefits for older people.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the Potential of Emerging Technologies to Meet the Care and Support Needs of Older People: A Delphi Survey

2021

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Some emerging technologies have potential to address older people’s care and support needs. However, there is still a gap in the knowledge on the potential uses of these technologies in some care domains. Therefore, a two-round Delphi survey was conducted to establish a consensus of opinion from a group of health and social technology experts (n = 21) on the potential of 10 emerging technologies to meet older people’s needs in five care and support domains. Experts were also asked to provide reasons for their choices in free-text spaces. The consensus level was set at 70%. Free-text responses were analyzed using thematic analysis. Voice activated devices was the technology that reached experts consensus in all assessed care domains. Some technologies (e.g., Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled apps and wearables and Internet of things (IoT) enabled homes) also show potential to support basic self-care and access to healthcare needs of older people. However, most of the remaining technologies (e.g., robotics, exoskeletons, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR)) face a range of technical and acceptability issues that may hinder their adoption by older people in the near future. Findings should encourage the R & D community to address some of the identified challenges to improve the adoption of emerging technologies by older people.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Potential of Emerging Technologies to Meet the Care and Support Needs of Older People: A Delphi Survey

2021

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“…A new perspective on voice-user interface design could be necessary for VA to engage with endusers with various healthcare needs during a crisis to communicate and exchange health information effectively. At-risk communities who can potentially benefit from VA, such as the elderly, should especially be considered 39,40 . Currently, VAs' user engagement and comprehension may not be optimal with medical communications (e.g., not understanding a command, providing erroneous or misleading content) 41,42 .…”

Section: Readiness Of Technology Providersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Readiness for voice assistants to support healthcare delivery during a health crisis and pandemic

et al. 2020

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To prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to continue responding to healthcare needs, hospitals are rapidly adopting telehealth and other digital health tools to deliver care remotely. Intelligent conversational agents and virtual assistants, such as chatbots and voice assistants, have been utilized to augment health service capacity to screen symptoms, deliver healthcare information, and reduce exposure. In this commentary, we examined the state of voice assistants (e.g., Google Assistant, Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa) as an emerging tool for remote healthcare delivery service and discussed the readiness of the health system and technology providers to adapt voice assistants as an alternative healthcare delivery modality during a health crisis and pandemic.

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“…Although a voice assistant holds great promise to support older adults through its simple speech-based interaction modality, little is known about how older adults perceive and respond to the idea of talking to a device that does not have a graphical user interface. Researchers have recently begun to investigate older adults' use of a voice assistant, but with few exceptions [ 3 ], they produce preliminary or interim reports [ 2 , 4 , 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the small size and low contrast of buttons on a mobile display have a significant negative influence on interaction performance [ 5 ]. Another common barrier is related to psychological and mental obstacles, such as negative cognitive perception [ 3 ], technophobia [ 12 ], and lack of self-efficacy [ 4 ]. Older adults especially tend to refuse a new technology due to perceived effort associated with learning [ 13 ] or lack of perceived usefulness [ 14 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring How Older Adults Use a Smart Speaker–Based Voice Assistant in Their First Interactions: Qualitative Study

Kim¹

2021

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background Smart speaker–based voice assistants promise support for the aging population, with the advantages of hands-free and eyes-free interaction modalities to handle requests. However, little is known about how older adults perceive the benefits of this type of device. Objective This study investigates how older adults experience and respond to a voice assistant when they first interact with it. Because first impressions act as strong predictors of the overall attitude and acceptability of new technologies, it is important to understand the user experiences of first exposure. Methods We conducted semistructured interviews with 18 people 74 years and older who had never used a smart speaker before, investigating the patterns of use, usability issues, and perspectives that older adults have when using a voice assistant for the first time. Results The overall first response to a voice assistant was positive, thanks to the simplicity of a speech-based interaction. In particular, a positive and polite response to complete the interaction with a voice assistant was prevalent, such as expressing gratitude or giving feedback about the quality of answers. Two predominant topics of commands made in the first interaction include asking health care–related questions and streaming music. However, most of the follow-up reactions were unfavorable because of the difficulty in constructing a structured sentence for a command; misperceptions about how a voice assistant operates; and concerns about privacy, security, and financial burdens. Overall, a speech-based interaction was perceived to be beneficial owing to its efficiency and convenience, but no other benefits were perceived. Conclusions On the basis of the findings, we discuss design implications that can positively influence older adults' first experiences with a voice assistant, including helping better understand how a voice assistant works, incorporating mistakes and common interaction patterns into its design, and providing features tailored to the needs of older adults.

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"Alexa is a Toy": Exploring Older Adults' Reasons for Using, Limiting, and Abandoning Echo

Cited by 101 publications

References 50 publications

Exploring the Potential of Emerging Technologies to Meet the Care and Support Needs of Older People: A Delphi Survey

Exploring the Potential of Emerging Technologies to Meet the Care and Support Needs of Older People: A Delphi Survey

Readiness for voice assistants to support healthcare delivery during a health crisis and pandemic

Exploring How Older Adults Use a Smart Speaker–Based Voice Assistant in Their First Interactions: Qualitative Study

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