Vanessa Evers

Assessing acceptance of assistive social agent technology by older adults: the Almere model

This paper proposes a model of technology acceptance that is specifically developed to test the acceptance of assistive social agents by elderly users. The research in this paper develops and tests an adaptation and theoretical extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by explaining intent to use not only in terms of variables related to functional evaluation like perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, but also variables that relate to social interaction. The new model was tested using controlled experiment and longitudinal data collected regarding three different social agents at elderly care facilities and at the homes of older adults. The model was strongly supported accounting for 59–79% of the variance in usage intentions and 49–59% of the variance in actual use. These findings contribute to our understanding of how elderly users accept assistive social agents.

The Role of Culture in Interface Acceptance

In order for global software to be marketed successfully, the design of interfaces should accommodate users’ cultural differences. This study examines users’ culturally specific design preferences, and evaluates the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of satisfying or not satisfying such preferences. Participants consist of 206 international students, plus a control group of 38 Australian students. Results indicate that design preferences do affect interface acceptance, but that the path of influence leading from preference to attitude and behaviour varies from culture to culture. In particular, unexpected differences are noted between Chinese and Indonesian subjects. Conclusions emphasise the need for confirmatory research, both in terms of interface acceptance and in the design of information systems.

Enjoyment intention to use and actual use of a conversational robot by elderly people

In this paper we explore the concept of enjoyment as a possible factor influencing acceptance of robotic technology by elderly people. We describe an experiment with a conversational robot and elderly users (n=30) that incorporates both a test session and a long term user observation. The experiment did confirm the hypothesis that perceived enjoyment has an effect on the intention to use a robotic system. Furthermore, findings show that the general assumption in technology acceptance models that intention to use predicts actual use is also applicable to this specific technology used by elderly people.

The Influence of a Robot's Social Abilities on Acceptance by Elderly Users

This study examines the influence of perceived social abilities of a robot on users attitude towards and acceptance of the robot. An interface robot with simulated conversational capabilities was used in a Wizard of Oz experiment with two conditions: a more socially communicative (the robot made use of a larger set of social abilities in interaction) and a less socially communicative interface. Participants (n=40) were observed in 5 minute interaction sessions and were asked to answer questions on perceived social abilities and technology acceptance. Results show that participants who were confronted with the more socially communicative version of the robot felt more comfortable and were more expressive in communicating with it. This suggests that the more socially communicative condition would be more likely to be accepted as a conversational partner. However, the findings did not show a significant correlation between perceived social abilities and technology acceptance

Influence of social presence on acceptance of an assistive social robot and screen agent by elderly users

When using a robot or a screen agent, elderly users might feel more enjoyment if they experience a stronger social presence. In two experiments with a robotic agent and a screen agent (both n = 30) this relationship between these two concepts could be confirmed. In addition, both studies showed that social presence correlates with the Intention to Use the system, although there were some differences between the agents. This implicates that factors that influence social presence are relevant when designing assistive agents for elderly people.

Relating conversational expressiveness to social presence and acceptance of an assistive social robot

Exploring the relationship between social presence, conversational expressiveness, and robot acceptance, we set up an experiment with a robot in an eldercare institution, comparing a more and less social condition. Participants showed more expressiveness with a more social agent and a higher score on expressiveness correlated with higher scores on social presence. Furthermore, scores on social presence correlated with the scores on the intention to use the system in the near future. However, we found no correlation between conversational expressiveness and robot acceptance.

Cross-cultural applicability of user evaluation methods: a case study amongst Japanese, North-American, English and Dutch users

This paper describes the findings for an international user study investigating cultural applicability of user evaluation methods. The case study evaluates cultural differences in understanding of a virtual campus website across four culturally different user groups by using the same methods for each group. Findings suggest that some user evaluation methods are less applicable than others are for a culturally diverse user base.

Organizing Suggestions in Autocompletion Interfaces

We describe two user studies that investigate organization strategies of autocompletion in a known-item search task: searching for terms taken from a thesaurus. In Study 1, we explored ways of grouping term suggestions from two different thesauri (TGN and WordNet) and found that different thesauri may require different organization strategies. Users found Group organization more appropriate for location names from TGN, while Alphabetical works better for object names from WordNet. In Study 2, we compared three different organization strategies (Alphabetical , Group and Composite ) for location name search tasks. The results indicate that for TGN autocompletion interfaces help improve the quality of keywords, Group and Composite organization help users search faster, and is perceived easier to understand and to use than Alphabetical .

Context analysis to support development of virtual reality applications

To develop a usable Virtual Reality system, the prospective context of use of such a system may need to be considered in order to make sure it meets the requirements and restrictions of that context. In this paper, a contextual analysis is described for a virtual reality system to aid medical diagnosis and treatment planning of vascular disorders. Semi-structured interviews were coupled with observations in an ethnographic approach to requirements gathering in the daily work environment of (interventional) radiologists and vascular surgeons. The identified potential usability problems of a fully immersive prototype, coupled with the needs, requirements and real-life environment of the end-users lead to guidelines for the development of a VR application on a semi-immersive desktop environment. The findings lead us to believe that contextual analysis can be a powerful way to inform the design of a VR application by offering an understanding of the context of use and to inform developers of the most appropriate degree of immersiveness of the VR environment.

Intermediated technology interaction in rural contexts

Access to information technology in developing countries is often indirect, involving human intermediaries. A computer kiosk is a typical instance of three-way interaction between user, kiosk operator, and kiosk technology. We describe a pilot experimental study that investigates whether manipulating the social prominence of the intermediary versus the technology affects perceived information characteristics and attitudes toward the interaction. We suggest that a better understanding of such locally specific interaction models is needed to address culturally influenced issues in information technology use throughout the developing world. Ongoing methodological challenges in conducting experimental studies in such contexts are discussed.