Elderly User Evaluation of Mobile Touchscreen Interactions

Abstract

Abstract. Smartphones with touchscreen-based interfaces are increasingly used by non-technical groups including the elderly. However, application developers have little understanding of how senior users interact with their products and of how to design senior-friendly interfaces. As an initial study to assess standard mobile touchscreen interfaces for the elderly, we conducted performance measurements and observational evaluations of 20 elderly participants. The tasks included performing basic gestures such as taps, drags, and pinching motions and using basic interactive components such as software keyboards and photo viewers. We found that mobile touchscreens were generally easy for the elderly to use and a week's experience generally improved their proficiency. However, careful observations identified several typical problems that should be addressed in future interfaces. We discuss the implications of our experiments, seeking to provide informal guidelines for application developers to design better interfaces for elderly people.

Question-Answer Cards for an Inclusive Micro-tasking Framework for the Elderly

“…Leonardi et al found that seniors preferred intuitive touchscreen interfaces over keyboards [ 19]. Kobayashi et al reported that mobile touchscreen interactions are "enjoyable" for seniors and their skills with such interfaces improve rapidly [ 20]. Those studies motivated us to include touchscreen devices in the primary targets of It seems acceptable.…”

“…It is known that senior people have trouble in using the keypad on mobile phones, particularly on a touchscreen [ 20]. The problem is more serious in East Asia, where frequent mode-switching is required to access thousands of characters.…”

“…The mobile touchscreen device is known to be easy to use and preferred by the elderly [ 20]. Although smartphone users are still a minority in the elderly population at this time, it is expected to be an increasingly common device in the next decade.…”

Performance on the traditional and the touch screen, tablet versions of the Corsi Block and the Tower of Hanoi tasks

“…However, Holzinger, Searle & Wernbacker (2001) suggest that an important factor to consider is an individual's previous exposure to technology, known as the PET factor. Studies have shown that older adults are less likely to use technology than the younger generation (Caprani,et al 2012) but short periods of practice can result in proficiency (Kobayashi, Hiyama, Miura, Asakawa, Hirose et al (2011).…”

Smartphone-Based Gait Measurement Application for Exercise and Its Effects on the Lifestyle of Senior Citizens

“…1, include home, summary, and graph views that handle functions that log the sensor values, display walk summaries for the entire period of use of the application, and show detailed results. The design of these views, including button and font sizes, was developed by consulting the Apple iOS Human Interface Guidelines and a guideline for seniors proposed by Kobayashi et al [1,32]. To avoid confusion, the interface can be operated only by tapping a few buttons.…”