Wei-Hsin Liu
Business Next Publishing Crop
Li-An Chiu
AgriDaily International Ltd. Co
Wei-Jane Lin
Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University
Hsiu-Ping Yueh
Department of Bioindustry Communication and Development, National Taiwan University
Yao-Joe Yang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University
This study examines the effectiveness and preferences of notification sounds designed for a smart pill box on elderly users. The users’ preferences and responses to different notification sounds were collected and analyzed using a quasi-experimental, within-subject design. 18 elderly users aged 80 to 96 participated in the experiment through purposive sampling. Results showed that the most effective notification sound were monophonic tone prompts, followed by recorded oral prompts, and lastly, melodic prompts. However, the most preferred notification sounds were the recorded oral prompts, followed by the monophonic, then the melodic. These findings help inform the acceptability and receptivity considerations of gerontech-nological design regarding future information systems and products. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Keywords: gerontechnology, smart pill box, audio notification system, notification sound effect