Comparing Smartwatch Input Modalities for Older Users in a TVControl Scenario

Abstract

Older people have been hesitant to accept smartwatches as supporting devices in their daily routine. We present a study which used an environment familiar to many older users to examine differences between touch and voice input for smartwatches. As people get older they tend to spend considerable amounts of time watching television. In this familiar setup we examined to what extent touch and voice input differ, using a smartwatch as a television remote control. We developed two smartwatch applications, one for each input modality, with which users could operate a TV simulator. In pre-tests, we determined possible speech input commands and preferred smartwatch gestures. Testing with eight older adults we found potential for both input modalities with speech input taking significantly longer. Although a majority of participants reported speech to be "easier" (with the rest undecided), participants were ultimately divided in their preference of one system over the other.