User Experience and Social Presence in Intelligent Personal Assistants among Older Users

As intelligent personal assistants gain popularity, the technology sees increasing adoption by older users. The device’s use of natural language processing for human-agent interaction purportedly makes it easier for older users to adopt. However, to properly understand how older users perceive and use the devices, continuous user research is needed. To this end, we conducted a user perception, task performance, and social presence study with two standalone IPAs to assess elements of usability and user experience. Additionally, since current research indicates that the devices may help ameliorate loneliness in older populations, the present study assessed perceived social presence and its relationship to loneliness in our sample. Results indicate that older users are mostly satisfied with the device interactions regardless of their actual performance while using the devices. Finally, in our sample, loneliness was not associated with perceived social presence.