“Computer, how do smart speakers support aging in place?” – A feature analysis focusing on smart speaker applications in Amazon’s skill store for older persons
Sebastian Merkel PhD*, Alexander Kucharski MA, Sabrina Schorr BA
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AbstractBackground: Since smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo have been introduced in 2015, the devices show rapid diffusion. Older users have been identified as a user group that can benefit from smart speakers as the devices can be operated by voice commands and do not require knowledge of visual interfaces. Smart speakers can be customized and individualized with downloadable software applications called "skills" or "actions". Due to this “fit”, there is a growing number of skills available for download that target older users. As known from other technologies, design choices are affected by images of aging that are often simplistic or negative.
Objective: Focusing on Amazon’s skill store, the aim of this paper is to identify skills available specifically for older users. We explore the extent to which skills for older persons are determined by deficit-oriented images of aging.
Method: We searched Amazon’s skill store for terms such as “elderly”, “senior”, and “older person” and abbreviations and included skills that target older users. To analyze the identified skills, we applied a feature analysis that allows us to investigate the design choices of developers and their images of aging. As part of the feature analysis, we used qualitative content analysis to interpret the data.
Results: The search revealed 67 skills targeting older persons. The dominant category was “Health and Fitness”, followed by “Education and Reference” and “Productivity”. The analysis revealed the following most frequent features: News about events, informing relatives about health and emergencies, physical and mental exercise, and medication reminders. We identified multiple skills that follow negative images of aging and aim at compensation.
Conclusion: Smart speakers are a technology with a rising proliferation and increasingly become relevant for older users. The feature analysis underlines that deficit-oriented images of aging are still common in technology development.Keywords: Apps, smart speaker, skills, images of aging
Sebastian Merkel PhD*, Alexander Kucharski MA, Sabrina Schorr BA (2022). “Computer, how do smart speakers support aging in place?” – A feature analysis focusing on smart speaker applications in Amazon’s skill store for older persons. Gerontechnology, 21(1), 1-11
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2022.21.1.592.12