Polite or Direct? Conversation Design of a Smart Display for Older Adults Based on Politeness Theory

Conversational interfaces increasingly rely on human-like dialogue to offer a natural experience. However, relying on dialogue involving multiple exchanges for even simple tasks can overburden users, particularly older adults. In this paper, we explored the use of politeness theory in conversation design to alleviate this burden and improve user experience. To achieve this goal, we categorized the voice interaction offered by a smart display application designed for older adults into seven major speech acts: request, suggest, instruct, comment, welcome, farewell, and repair. We identified face needs for each speech act, applied politeness strategies that best address these needs, and tested the ability of these strategies to shape the perceived politeness of a voice assistant in an online study (n = 64). Based on the findings of this study, we designed direct and polite versions of the system and conducted a field study (n = 15) in which participants used each of the versions for five days at their homes. Based on five factors merged from our qualitative findings, we identified four distinctive user personas—socially oriented follower, socially oriented leader, utility oriented follower, and utility oriented leader—that can inform personalized design of smart displays.