How Older Adults Think About Narrator: A Qualitative Study on Video Training and Smart Home Technology

This study revisits the literature of technology adoptionAdoption among older adults—the common finding that technology adoptionAdoption is negatively predicted by age and technology anxietyAnxiety—by examining (1) the attitudes and perceptions of older adults about smart home technology; and (2) whether it matters to incorporate a human narrator (versus cartoon narrator) in the instruction video, and whether there is a difference if the human narrator is a childChild, a young adult, or an older adult. One hundred and six face-to-face individual interviews with older adults aged 50 years or above were conducted in this study. An instruction video demonstrating the use of smartphoneSmartphone home system varied in four types of narrators (i.e., female childChild, young female adult, older female adult, and cartoon young girl) was presented to participants within the interview. Attitudes and perceptions of participants towards the product, as well as their preferences on the narrator who conveyed the instruction were explored. Results showed that older adults present an overwhelming positive attitude towards the smartphoneSmartphone home system. The reasons underlie their attitudes consist of perceivedPerceived usefulnessUsefulness, perceivedPerceived ease of use and facilitating conditions. Older adults prefer narrators of female childChild and older female adult to the young female adult and cartoon young girl. The in-depth meanings that underlie older adults’ attitudes and explanations of their preferences were also identified. Findings of this study can provide insights to the promotion of smart home technology acceptance among older adults.