The Influence of Response Time and Feedback Type on the User Experience of Voice Interaction among Older Adults

With the maturity and development of digital technology, voice interaction has been widely used in different devices or scenarios. However, older adults have low satisfaction and acceptance levels when using voice interaction. To improve older adults' user experience of voice interaction, the current study explored the effect of response time and feedback type on the user experience of voice interaction among older adults. A Xiaodu smart speaker was used as the experimental device, and the response time was recorded using artificial breakpoints. Our study consisted of two experiments that explored the voice wake-up and voice dialogue stages under different combinations of response time and feedback type and older adults rated their satisfaction, comfort, anthropomorphism, and perceived speed level. The results showed that: (1) the optimal wake-up response time for older adults is 250–1000 ms, and the optimal dialogue response time is 600–1500 ms. (2) As response time increases, older adults' satisfaction, comfort, and anthropomorphism toward smart speakers decrease. In the wake-up stage, the scores in the time period >2000 ms is significantly lower than those shorter response times. In the dialogue stage, the scores in the time periods >3000 ms are significantly lower than those shorter response times. (3) In the wake-up stage, the voice-based prompt "Hello, I'm Xiaodu" scores highest among all kinds of feedback types. In the dialogue stage, the social-oriented feedback scores higher in satisfaction and comfort than task-oriented feedback. The results of the current study could provide implications for age-friendly voice interaction design.