Seniors’ expectations to adopt IoT technologies

Abstract

A new computational paradigm called the Internet of Things (IoT) has allowed various objects in our routine to communicate with each other. We can also observe that the global number of seniors with the effective potential to be its users grows, mainly due to the increase in life expectancy. Then, seniors can benefit from IoT technologies to achieve a better quality of life and healthy ageing when these technologies consider accessibility and usability. This study aimed to understand better the seniors’ main perceptions about using IoT technologies, especially to discover the users’ expectations of dealing with them. Thus, 11 Brazilian seniors (over 60 years old) participated in interviews, and based on their responses, we conducted a thematic analysis. Besides revealing the expectations of the interviewees for adopting IoT, this study also presents the development and evaluation of an IoT application to support seniors based on the requirements identified in the interviews.