Robin Brewer
Raymundo Cornejo Garcia
Darren Gergle
Abstract
This article explores the design and development of voice interfaces via traditional telephones as a way of supporting asynchronous online communication for older adults. E-mail is the primary form of online communication for older adults. However, e-mail communication currently requires access to and the ability to use an Internet-connected computer or device, which may be problematic due to barriers of physical access, expense, insufficient computer skill, or other accessibility issues. To address this, the present work leverages the pervasive hardware of traditional phones and familiar nonvisual models of phone-based interaction to create a new e-mail interface for older adults. We examine the potential of e-mail interaction via traditional phones through long-term field observations, prototype testing, and a four-week field-based user study. Our findings indicate that a simple voice e-mail interface accessed through traditional phones is usable for older adults and is a useful way for offline older adults to interact with an e-mail account. The ease of use and convenience of a phone-based interface are important given the “work” of keeping in touch over e-mail, and this approach has the potential to open up new avenues of online access for older adults who are still offline or who have late-life disabilities that make using traditional graphical e-mail systems difficult. This project contributes new insights regarding the ways in which voice interfaces can support asynchronous online communication for older adults and provides design guidance for the development of subsequent voice interfaces.
- Aging in Place Technology Watch. 2011. Technology Survey Age 65 to 100. Retrieved from http://www.ageinplacetech.com.Google Scholar
- Nuno Baptista, Rui Prior, and Manuel E. Correia. 2009. Telephone interface for the email service. In Future Computing, Service Computation, Cognitive, Adaptive, Content, Patterns (COMPUTATIONWORLD'09). Computation World. IEEE, 437--442. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Michael T. Braun. 2013. Obstacles to social networking website use among older adults. Computers in Human Behavior 29, 3 (2013), 673--680. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kathy Charmaz. 2000. Grounded theory: Objectivist and constructivist methods. In Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (Eds.). Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 509--535.Google Scholar
- Raymundo Cornejo, Mónica Tentori, and Jesús Favela. 2013. Ambient awareness to strengthen the family social network of older adults. Computer Supported Cooperative Work 22, 2--3 (2013), 309--344. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Erin Cornwell and Linda Waite. 2009. Measuring social isolation among older adults using multiple indicators from the NSHAP study. Journal of Gerontol 64B (2009), i38--i46. Issue suppl_1.Google Scholar
- Shelia R. Cotten, George Ford, Sherry Ford, and Timothy M. Hale. 2012. Internet use and depression among older adults. Computers in Human Behavior 28, 2 (2012), 496--499. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.10.021 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sara Czaja, Neil Charness, Arthur D. Fisk, Christopher Hertzog, Sankaran N. Nair, Wendy Rogers, and Joseph Sharit. 2006. Factors predicting the use of technology: Findings from the center for research and education on aging and technology enhancement (CREATE). Psychology and Aging 21 (2006), 333--352. Issue 2.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Fred D. Davis, Richard P. Bagozzi, and Paul R. Warshaw. 1989. User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models. Management Science 35 (1989), 982--1003. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Anna Dickinson and Robin L. Hill. 2007. Keeping in touch: Talking to older people about computers and communication. Education and Gerontology (2007), 613--630. Issue 33.Google Scholar
- Anna Dickinson, Allan F. Newell, Michael J. Smith, and Robin L. Hill. 2005. Introducing the internet to the over-60s: Developing an email system for older novice computer users. Interacive Computing 17, 6 (2005), 621--642. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sara Ferlander. 2007. The importance of different forms of social capital for health. Acta Sociologica 50 (2007), 115--128.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Arthur D. Fisk, Wendy A. Rogers, Neil Charness, Sara J. Czaja, and Joseph Sharit. 2009. Designing for Older Adults: Principles and Creative Human Factors Approaches. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.4017/gt.2005.03.03.010.00Google Scholar
- Vaibhav Garg, Lesa Lorenzen-Huber, L. Jean Camp, and Kay Connelly. 2012. Risk communication design for older adults. ISG* ISARC. Retrieved from http://www.ljean.com/files/RiskOlderAdults.pdf.Google Scholar
- Vicki L. Hanson. 2009. Age and web access: The next generation. In Proceedings of the W4A. ACM, 7--15. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1535658 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nic Hollinworth and Faustina Hwang. 2011. Investigating familiar interactions to help older adults learn computer applications more easily. In Proceedings of CHI. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Alexis Hope, Ted Schwaba, and Anne Marie Piper. 2014. Understanding digital and material social communications for older adults. In Proceedings of CHI. 3903--3912. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Juan Pablo Hourcade, Christopher M. Nguyen, Keith B. Perry, and Natalie L. Denburg. 2010. Pointassist for older adults: Analyzing sub-movement characteristics to aid in pointing tasks. In Proceedings of CHI. 1115--1124. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Eun Ju Lee, Clifford Nass, and Scott Brave. 2000. Can computer-generated speech have gender?: An experimental test of gender stereotype. In Ext Abs of CHI.Google Scholar
- Siân E. Lindley. 2012. Shades of lightweight: Supporting cross-generational communication through home messaging. Universal Access in the Information Society 11, 1 (2012), 31--43. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Siân E. Lindley, Richard Harper, and Abigail Sellen. 2008. Designing for elders: Exploring the complexity of relationships in later life. In Proceedings of BCS-HCI. 77--86. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Siân E. Lindley, Richard Harper, and Abigail Sellen. 2009. Desiring to be in touch in a changing communications landscape: Attitudes of older adults. In Proceedings of CHI. 1693--1702. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lorna Lines and Kate S. Hone. 2002. Older adults’ evaluations of speech output. In Proceedings of ASSETS. New York, NY, 170--177. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/638249.638280 Google ScholarDigital Library
- R. C. Littell, G. A. Milliken, W. W. Stroup, and R. D. Wolfinger. 1996. SAS System for Mixed Models. 633 pp. pages.Google Scholar
- James Lubben and Melanie Gironda. 2003. Centrality of social ties to the health and well-being of older adults. In Social Work and Health Care in an Aging Society: Education, Policy, Practice, and Research. Springer.Google Scholar
- Tracy L. Mitzner, Julie B. Boron, Cara Bailey Fausset, Anne E. Adams, Neil Charness, Sara J. Czaja, Katinka Dijkstra, Arthur D. Fisk, Wendy A. Rogers, and Joseph Sharit. 2010. Older adults talk technology: Technology usage and attitudes. Computers in Human Behavior 26, 6 (2010), 1710--1721. Online Interactivity: Role of Technology in Behavior Change. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Karyn Moffatt, Jessica David, and Ronald M. Baecker. 2012. Connecting grandparents and grandchildren. In Connecting Families: The Impact of New Communication Technologies on Domestic Life, Carman Neustaedter, Steve Harrison, and Abigail Sellen (Eds.). Springer, 173--193.Google Scholar
- Clifford Nass and Scott Brave. 2005. Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Chris Norval, John L. Arnott, and Vicki L. Hanson. 2014. What’s on your mind?: Investigating recommendations for inclusive social networking and older adults. In Proceedings of CHI. 3923--3932. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Neil Patel, Sheetal Agarwal, Nitendra Rajput, Amit Nanavati, Paresh Dave, and Tapan S. Parikh. 2009. A comparative study of speech and dialed input voice interfaces in rural india. In Proceedings of CHI. 51--54. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Paul Resnick. 1992. HyperVoice: A phone-based CSCW platform. In Proceedings of CSCW. 218--225. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nithya Sambasivan, Julie Weber, and Edward Cutrell. 2011. Designing a phone broadcasting system for urban sex workers in India. In Proceedings of CHI. 267--276. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sergio Sayago and Josep Blat. 2010. Telling the story of older people e-mailing: An ethnographical study. International Journal of Human Computer Studies 68, 1--2 (2010), 105--120. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2009.10.004 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Chris Schmandt. 1993. Phoneshell: The telephone as computer terminal. In Proceedings of ICME (MULTIMEDIA’93). 373--382. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Aaron Smith. 2014. Older adults and technology use. Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
- Shima Sum, R. Mark Mathews, Ian Hughes, and Andrew Campbell. 2008. Internet use and loneliness in older adults. Cyberpsychology and Behavior 11 (2008). Issue 2.Google Scholar
- S. Shyam Sundar, Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, Jon Nussbaum, and Richard Behr. 2011. Retirees on Facebook: Can online social networking enhance their health and wellness? In Proceedings of CHI. 2287--2292. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Maria Wolters, Kallirroi Georgila, Johanna D. Moore, Robert H. Logie, Sarah E. MacPherson, and Matthew Watson. 2009b. Reducing working memory load in spoken dialogue systems. Interactive Computing 21, 4 (Aug. 2009), 276--287. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intcom.2009.05.009 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Maria Wolters, Kallirroi Georgila, Johanna D. Moore, and Sarah E. Macpherson. 2009a. Being old doesn’t mean acting old: How older users interact with spoken dialog systems. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 2, 1 (2009). Google ScholarDigital Library
- World Health Organization. 2015. Definition of an older or elderly person. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/ageingdefnolder/en/.Google Scholar
- Kathryn Zickuhr, Lee Rainie, Kristen Purcell, and Maeve Duggan. 2013. How Americans value public libraries in their communities. Retrieved from http://pewrsr.ch/1d8eKBD.Google Scholar
Recommendations
Recruiting Older Adults in the Wild: Reflections on Challenges and Lessons Learned from Research Experience
PervasiveHealth '18: Proceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for HealthcareIt is important to understand the older adults prior to the design process. The understanding can better facilitate design conversations between the researchers and the older adults. In this paper, we discussed our experiences of building a relationship ...
Older Adults' Digital Gameplay
Background. Empirical evidence suggests that digital gameplay can enhance social interaction and improve cognition for older adults. However, if digital games are to be effectively used as interventions to address age-related challenges, it is important ...
An Evaluation of Older Adults Use of iPads in Eleven UK Care-Homes
The introduction of the iPad and similar form-factor devices e.g. Samsung Galaxy Tab, Asus Eee Pad and Motorola Xoom has provided a unique opportunity for older adults to engage with mobile computing devices and platforms. Engagement with 'traditional' ...
Comments