Designing Voice-First Ambient Interfaces to Support Aging in Place

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We focus on the stories of five older adults who became voice assistant users through our study, and with whom we speculated about future interfaces through two design probes, one for health data reporting and one for positive reminiscing. We delivered a voice-first ambient interface (VFAI) to each participant, and closely observed participants' journeys through periodic themed interviews (16 hours, 21 minutes of transcribed recordings), usage log reviews (4,657 entries), and phone and text support. Participants' lived experiences impacted their perceptions and interactions with their VFAI, fueling rich insights about how to design for diverse needs. For example, while one participant saw increased potential in the VFAI after interacting with the design probe for health data reporting, another was skeptical of using it to communicate with her doctor. We contribute an in-depth exploration of VFAIs to support aging in place, implications for design, and areas for future work for tailoring VFAIs towards enabling continuity of care in people's homes.