Developing personas for live streaming commerce platforms with user survey data.

Live streaming commerce has emerged as a novel form of online marketing that offers live streaming commerce platforms a means of meeting different user groups' needs. The objective of this article is to examine the effects of age and gender on live streaming commerce platform usage and investigate user characteristics of these platforms in China. This study adopted a data-driven persona construction method combining quantitative and qualitative methods through the use of survey and interview. The survey involved 506 participants (age range = 19-70), and the interview involved 12 participants. The survey findings showed that age significantly affected users' livestream platform usage, while gender did not. Younger users had higher device proficiency and operation numbers. With more trust and device use, older users used the platforms later in the day than younger users. Interview findings revealed that gender affected users' motivations and value focus. Women tended to use the platforms as a means of entertainment. Women valued service quality and enjoyment more, while men focused on the accuracy of product information more. Four personas with significant differences were then constructed: Dedicated, Dependent, Active and Lurker. Their various needs, motivations and behavior patterns can be considered by designers to elevate the interaction of live streaming commerce platforms.

Impact of walking states, self-reported daily walking amount and age on the gait of older adults measured with a smart-phone app: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Smartphones provide a cost-effective avenue for gait assessment among older adults in the community. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of walking state, self-reported daily walking amount, and age on gait quality, using a smartphone application. METHODS: One hundred older adult individuals from North China, aged 73.0 ± 7.7 years, voluntarily participated in this study. They performed three walking tests: normal walking, fast walking, and visually impaired walking. Three-dimensional acceleration data for gait were obtained using the smartphone app Pocket Gait. This study used multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to explore the effects of the walking state, self-reported daily walking amount, and age on the step frequency, root mean square (RMS) acceleration, step time variability, regularity, and symmetry. RESULTS: The walking state, self-reported daily walking amount, and age had statistically significant effects on gait quality. Compared with normal walking, the step frequency, RMS acceleration, variability, and regularity were greater in the fast-walking state, and simulated visually impaired walking did not significantly affect gait quality. Relatively older individuals had a significant decline in gait quality compared to (relatively) younger older adult individuals. Compared with older adults who walked less than 1 km a day, older adults who walked more had better gait quality. CONCLUSIONS: The walking state, self-reported daily walking amount, and age have a significant effect on the gait quality of older adults. Walking with pigmented sunglasses can be used as a training intervention to improve gait performance. Older adult people who walk less than 1 km/day have worse gait quality compared with their counterparts.

Effects of communication style, anthropomorphic setting and individual differences on older adults using voice assistants in a health context.

BACKGROUND: Voice assistants enable older adults to communicate regarding their health as well as facilitate ageing in place. This study investigated the effects of communication style, anthropomorphic setting, and individual differences on the trust, acceptance, and mental workload of older adults using a voice assistant when communicating health issues. METHODS: This is a mixed-methods study utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods. One hundred and six older adults (M = 71.8 years, SD = 4.6 years) participated in a 2 (communication style: social- vs. task-oriented; between-subject)[Formula: see text] 2 (anthropomorphic setting: ordinary profession vs. medical background; within-subject) mixed design experiment. The study used multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to examine the effects of communication style, anthropomorphic setting of the voice assistant, and participants' use frequency of digital devices on the trust, technology acceptance, and mental workload of older adults using a voice assistant in a health context. End-of-study interviews regarding voice assistant use were conducted with participants. Qualitative content analyses were used to assess the interview findings about the communication content, the more trustworthy anthropomorphic setting, and suggestions for the voice assistant. RESULTS: Communication style, anthropomorphic setting, and individual differences all had statistically significant effects on older adults' evaluations of the voice assistant. Compared with a task-oriented voice assistant, older adults preferred a social-oriented voice assistant in terms of trust in ability, integrity, and technology acceptance. Older adults also had better evaluations for a voice assistant with a medical background in terms of trust in ability, integrity, technology acceptance, and mental workload. In addition, older adults with more experience using digital products provided more positive evaluations in terms of trust in ability, integrity, and technology acceptance. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that when designing a voice assistant for older adults in the health context, using a social-oriented communication style and providing an anthropomorphic setting in which the voice assistant has a medical background are effective ways to improve the trust and acceptance of older adults of voice assistants in an internet-of-things environment.

User acceptance of smart home voice assistant: a comparison among younger, middle-aged, and older adults.

Voice assistants are widely used in smart home environments. This study aimed to investigate user acceptance of a smart home voice assistant. A questionnaire was designed, and 471 Chinese adults were recruited to complete the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis. The results revealed that user requirements of adults were composed of six factors: hedonic motivation and trust (ß = .41, p < .001), social influence (ß = .22, p < .001), performance expectancy (ß = .15, p < .001), effort expectancy (ß = .08, p = .018), product features (ß = .15, p = .009), and facilitating conditions (ß = .06, p = .049). Among these six factors, hedonic motivation and trust are considered the most important. Younger, middle-aged, and older adults differed significantly in their requirements and acceptance of a smart home voice assistant. These findings have implications for the design of smart home voice assistants so that they are more acceptable to younger and older adults. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10209-022-00936-1.

Fatigue assessment of sedentary office workers using smartphones: a preliminary study.

Objectives. Smartphone-based gait assessment provides a novel method to evaluate fatigue. This study aimed to examine self-reported fatigue and gait parameters recorded using a smartphone before and after an 8-h work day in bank workers, and identify the relationship between self-reported fatigue and gait parameters. Methods. One hundred bank workers (aged 20-45 years) were tested before and after an 8-h work day using a reaction time test, self-reported fatigue scale and gait test. Spearman correlation coefficient analysis and partial least squares regression were used to identify the relationship between self-reported fatigue and gait parameters. Results. Reaction time and self-reported fatigue increased significantly after work. Gait parameters (step frequency, minimum acceleration, acceleration root mean square, step regularity and step counts) decreased; step time and step time variability increased significantly (p < 0.05). We found a significant correlation between changes (Δ) for Δwork engagement and Δstep frequency (r = -0.20, p < 0.05), Δwork engagement and Δstep time (r = 0.21, p < 0.05), and Δwork tasks and Δstep symmetry (r = -0.20, p < 0.05). Conclusion. This study suggests that step frequency, step time and step symmetry measured using a smartphone have the potential to be used as predictors of work fatigue.

A Mobile Phone-Based Gait Assessment App for the Elderly: Development and Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Gait disorders are common among older adults. With an increase in the use of technology among older adults, a mobile phone app provides a solution for older adults to self-monitor their gait quality in daily life. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a gait-monitoring mobile phone app (Pocket Gait) and evaluate its acceptability and usability among potential older users. METHODS: The app was developed to allow older adults to track their gait quality, including step frequency, acceleration root mean square (RMS), step regularity, step symmetry, and step variability. We recruited a total of 148 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years and older from two cities in China: Beijing and Chongqing. They walked in three ways (single task, dual task, and fast walking) using a smartphone with the gait-monitoring app installed and completed an acceptability and usability survey after the walk test. User acceptability was measured by a questionnaire including four quantitative measures: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, ease of learning, and intention to use. Usability was measured using the System Usability Scale (SUS). Interviews were conducted with participants to collect open-ended feedback questions. RESULTS: Task type had a significant effect on all gait parameters, namely, step frequency, RMS, step variability, step regularity, and step symmetry (all P values <.001). Age had a significant effect on step frequency (P=.01), and region had a significant effect on step regularity (P=.04). The acceptability of the gait-monitoring app was positive among older adults. Participants identified the usability of the system with an overall score of 59.7 (SD 10.7) out of 100. Older adults from Beijing scored significantly higher SUS compared with older adults from Chongqing (P<.001). The age of older adults was significantly associated with their SUS score (P=.048). Older adults identified improvements such as a larger font size, inclusion of reference values for gait parameters, and inclusion of heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: This mobile phone app is a health management tool for older adults to self-manage their gait quality and prevent adverse outcomes. In the future, it will be important to take factors such as age and region into consideration while designing a mobile phone-based gait assessment app. The feedback of the participants would help to design more elderly-friendly products.

Leveraging Walking Performance to Understand Work Fatigue Among Young Adults: Mixed-Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Work fatigue negatively impacts personal health in the long term. Prior research has indicated the possibility of leveraging both walking parameters and perceptual measures to assess a person's fatigue status. However, an effective and ubiquitous approach to assessing work fatigue in young adults remains unexplored. OBJECTIVE: The goals of this paper were to (1) explore how walking rhythms and multiple streams of data, including reaction time, self-reports, and an activity diary, reflect work-induced fatigue in the lab setting; (2) identify the relationship between objective performance and subjective perception in indicating fatigue status and fatigability; and (3) propose a mobile-based assessment for work-induced fatigue that uses multiple measurements. METHODS: We conducted a 2-day in-lab study to measure participants' fatigue status using multiple measurements, including the stair climb test (SCT), the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and the reaction time test. Both the SCT and the 6MWT were conducted at different points in time and under 2 conditions (measurement time, including prior to and after work, and pace, including normal and fast). Participants reported their fatigue perception through questionnaires completed before conducting walking tests and in an activity diary recorded over a week. Walking performance data were collected by a smartphone with a built-in 3-axis accelerometer. To examine the effect of fatigability on walking performance, we first clustered participants into 2 groups based on their reported mental fatigue level in the entry surveys and then compared their walking performance using a generalized linear model (GLM). The reaction time was examined using a 2-way repeated-measures GLM. We conducted semistructured interviews to understand participants' fatigue perception after each day's walking tests. RESULTS: All participants (N=26; mean age 24.68 years) were divided into 2 groups-the fatigue-sensitive group (11/26, 42%) and the fatigue-nonsensitive group (15/26, 58%)-based on their mental subscores from 3 entry surveys: Fatigue Scale-14, Three-Dimensional Work Fatigue Inventory, and Fatigue Self-Assessment Scale (FSAS). The fatigue-sensitive group reported a significantly higher FSAS score in the before-work setting (t50=-3.361; P=.001). The fatigue-sensitive group covered fewer steps than the fatigue-nonsensitive group (ß1=-0.099; SE 0.019; t1=-5.323; P<.001) and had a higher step-to-step time variability in the 6MWT (ß1=9.61 × 10-4; t1=2.329; P=.02). No strong correlation between subjective and objective measurements was observed in the study. CONCLUSIONS: Walking parameters, including step counts and step-to-step time variability, and some selected scales (eg, FSAS) were found to reflect participants' work-induced fatigue. Overall, our work suggests the opportunity of employing mobile-based walking measurements to indicate work fatigue among young adults.

Are cost-effective technologies feasible to measure gait in older adults? A systematic review of evidence-based literature.

BACKGROUND: Unrestricted by time and place, innovative technologies seem to provide cost-effective solutions for gait assessment in older adults. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to provide an overview of gait assessment for older adults by investigating critical gait characteristics of older adults, discussing advantages and disadvantages of the current gait assessment technologies, as well as device applicability. METHODS: The Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed during the review. Inclusion criteria were: (1) Sample consisting of adults older than 60 years; (2) qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method researches using one or more specific gait assessment technologies; and (3) publication in English between 2000 and 2018. RESULTS: In total, twenty-one studies were included. Gait speed, stride length, frequency, acceleration root mean square, step-to-step consistency, autocorrelation, harmonic ratio were reported in the existing literatures to be associated with falls. The enrolled studies address the use of pedometer, wearable accelerometer-based devices, Kinect, Nintendo Wii Balance Board as cost-effective gait assessment technologies. CONCLUSIONS: Gait parameters and assessment approaches for older adults are diverse. Cost-effective technologies such as a wearable accelerometer-based device, Kinect, and the Nintendo Wii Balance Board provide potential alternatives for gait assessment with acceptable validity and reliability compared with sophisticated devices. The popularity and development of cost-effective devices have made large-scale data collection for gait assessment possible in the daily environment. Further study could involve older adults and their family members/caregivers in use of these technologies to design elderly-friendly products.

Application of smart bracelet to monitor frailty-related gait parameters of older Chinese adults: A preliminary study.

AIM: Smart bracelets are popular today. Based on their built-in motion sensors, they can serve as a cost-effective method of gait assessment in home-based care. Few studies have applied smart bracelets in the gait assessment of older Chinese adults. The present study aimed to: (i) establish reference gait parameters of older Chinese adults using smart bracelets under single and dual task; and (ii) explore the differences in gait parameters among non-frail and pre-frail Chinese older adults. METHODS: A total of 50 community-dwelling older Chinese adults aged ≥50 years wore a smart bracelet sensor in the L3 region of the back and underwent a 10-m walking test under single- and dual-task conditions. Participants were preliminarily classified into non-frail and pre-frail groups based on the Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illnesses and Loss of Weight scale. Gait parameters including average walking speed, step frequency, root mean square (RMS), acceleration amplitude variability, step variability, step regularity and step symmetry were calculated based on the data exported from the bracelet. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of covariance (mancova) analysis showed that older adults had significantly decreased speed and step frequency (P < 0.05) under the dual cognitive task condition. Pre-frail older adults showed significantly decreased speed, mediolateral RMS, vertical RMS, anteroposterior RMS, vertical amplitude variability and vertical step regularity compared with non-frail older adults (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggested that the decline in gait parameters as a result of frailty could be detected by the smart bracelet sensor. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 1366-1371.