Older adults’ evaluations of smart home control screen designs: Appearance dimensions and behavioral intentions in a multi-stage study

In age-friendly home environments, control screens provide a point of contact between users and smart home systems, and their appearance may shape initial evaluations of these systems. This exploratory study used a multi-stage design to investigate older adults’ appearance evaluations and behavioral-intention patterns across different screen designs. Similarity judgments provided by 15 experts were examined using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, from which eight representative designs were selected from the original pool of 87 samples. Three independent groups of older adults took part, respectively, in dimension construction, comparative appearance evaluation, and behavioral-intention assessment. Exploratory principal component analysis identified four dimensions specific to the present study: Sturdy and Reliable , Futuristic Technology , High Quality , and Simple and Efficient . In the supplementary entropy-weighted TOPSIS analysis, the two largest data-derived weights were assigned to Sturdy and Reliable (31.3%) and Simple and Efficient (28.8%), and S73 ranked first in the composite appearance evaluation. Preference, willingness to use, and willingness to purchase differed across the eight designs in the Friedman tests (all p < 0.001). S56 had the highest ranking for preference and willingness to use, while S69 ranked highest for willingness to purchase. At the sample level, S73 and S56 performed comparatively well at both stages, although the composite appearance and behavioral-intention rankings did not fully coincide. Because the two sets of outcomes came from independent participant groups, comparisons across the two stages were descriptive only. These findings provide a basis for subsequent development and prototype testing of age-friendly interfaces.