  While standalone Voice Assistants (VAs) are promising to support older
adults' daily routine and wellbeing management, onboarding and setting up these
devices can be challenging. Although some older adults choose to seek
assistance from technicians and adult children, easy set up processes that
facilitate independent use are still critical, especially for those who do not
have access to external resources. We aim to understand the older adults'
experience while setting up commercially available voice-only and voice-first
screen-based VAs. Rooted in participants observations and semi-structured
interviews, we designed a within-subject study with 10 older adults using
Amazon Echo Dot and Echo Show. We identified the values of the built-in
touchscreen and the instruction documents, as well as the impact of form
factors, and outline important directions to support older adult independence
with VAs.
