  Conversational interfaces increasingly rely on human-like dialogue to offer a
natural experience. However, relying on dialogue involving multiple exchanges
for even simple tasks can overburden users, particularly older adults. In this
paper, we explored the use of politeness theory in conversation design to
alleviate this burden and improve user experience. To achieve this goal, we
categorized the voice interaction offered by a smart display application
designed for older adults into seven major speech acts: request, suggest,
instruct, comment, welcome, farewell, and repair. We identified face needs for
each speech act, applied politeness strategies that best address these needs,
and tested the ability of these strategies to shape the perceived politeness of
a voice assistant in an online study ($n=64$). Based on the findings of this
study, we designed direct and polite versions of the system and conducted a
field study ($n=15$) in which participants used each of the versions for five
days at their homes. Based on five factors merged from our qualitative
findings, we identified four distinctive user personas$\unicode{x2013}$socially
oriented follower, socially oriented leader, utility oriented follower, and
utility oriented leader$\unicode{x2013}$that can inform personalized design of
smart displays.
