Playfully Assessing the Acceptance and Choice of Ambient Assisted Living Technologies by Older Adults

Abstract

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies have the potential to enable people in older age to stay home longer. Although the technological options increase steadily, the broad implementation of AAL technologies has failed so far. As reasons, a lack of availability of AAL end products on the market, missing trust in technologies, and a lack of acceptance are discussed. Previous empirical studies on the acceptance of AAL technologies mostly use impersonal online questionnaires referring to just one technology to evaluate without choice. To fully understand technology acceptance, it is of paramount importance that the participants can empathize with high-maintenance situations and that they are honest in their evaluations. Therefore, this paper aimed to develop a personal and playful assessment approach with regard to diverse AAL technologies using an interview study (n = 6) in the first step. In a second step, the developed playful approach was transferred to an online survey addressing older adults (n = 122). After presenting the results, their suitability, differences, and similarities are intensively discussed.