Voice control as a potential method of human-computer interaction is steadilyincreasing, most recently with watches, cars and household appliances. Theelderly should be in focus for more digital development since they aresensitive to bad design. The purpose of the study therefore intends to includethis group in a survey of how a voice control system for beds can be formedfor the residents of a retirement home. 

The aim was to study selected components of a system that the elderly couldinteract with using their voice to control their adjustable beds. Limitationswere conducted mainly in the technical aspects of this system by excluding theuse of a technical prototype. The survey was performed using two methods.First, residents of a retirement home were individually interviewed to confirmand strenghten the purpose of the study, that they would benefit of having avoice controlled system to complement the current handheld controller ofeach of their beds. The results of the interviews lay the foundation for thesecond part of the study: user tests of a simulated system. In these tests,selected parts of a hypothetical voice control system were evaluated forusefullness.

The results indicate that participants valued simplicity over complexfunctions in a voice control system. In the feedback test, participantspreferred voice over sound as information-carrying. Thus, voice control ofbeds should be developed with a simple design that is conceptually the same,or very similar, to the participants mental model of the handheld controller.