Age group differences in performance using diverse input modalities: insertion task evaluation

Novel input modalities such as touch, tangibles or gestures try to exploit human's innate skills rather than imposing new learning processes. However, no work has been reported that systematically evaluates how these interfaces influence users' performance, that is, assesses if one interface can be more or less appropriate for interaction regarding: (1) different age groups; and (2) different basic tasks, as content insertion or manipulation. This work presents itself as an exploratory evaluation about whether or not the users' efficiency is indeed influenced by different input modalities and age. We conducted a usability evaluation with 60 subjects to understand how different interfaces may influence the speed and accuracy of three specific age groups (children, young adults and older-adults) when dealing with a basic content insertion task. Four input modalities were considered to perform the task (keyboard, touch, tangibles and gestures) and the methodology was based on usability testing (speed, accuracy and user preference). Overall, results show that there is a statistically significant difference in speed of task completion between the age groups, and there may be indications that the type of interface that is used can indeed influence efficiency in insertion tasks, and not so much other factors like age. Also, the study raises new issues regarding the "old" mouse input versus the "new" input modalities.FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/81541/2011)COMPETE: POCI-01-0145- FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/201

Intuitive learnability of touch gestures for technology-naïve older adults

Touch-based interactions, if intuitive and natural, should be highly learnable. However, the learnability of touch gestures as a computer interaction modality cannot be taken for granted and should be evaluated empirically. This is especially true when technology-naïve older adults are concerned, given the psychological and physical constraints associated with this age range. To investigate this issue, we conducted a study with 17 technology-naïve older adults, whose experience with technology was mostly limited to making calls with mobile phones. Specifically, the participants were presented with three simple digital games on an interactive tabletop surface and asked to play the games on their own with minimal instruction or help. The first two games required the use of a drag gesture whereas the third game required the use of a rotate gesture. The main research question was whether the older adults could learn the gestures effectively and efficiently. A set of variables such as task duration and gesture accuracy were measured. Results showed that the learnability of a drag gesture was relatively high and that the participants could transfer this skill across the games. In contrast, the learnability of a rotate gesture was low and most of the participants failed to demonstrate any improvement over the tasks of the game. These findings partially corroborate those of earlier work. Implications for future work are drawn, especially exploring the potential of social interactions between older adults for enhancing the learning effects

Investigating familiar interfaces to help older adults learn computer applications more easily

Many older adults wish to gain competence in using a computer, but many application interfaces are perceived as complex and difficult to use, deterring potential users from investing the time to learn them. Hence, this study looks at the potential of ‘familiar’ interface design which builds upon users’ knowledge of real world interactions, and applies existing skills to a new domain. Tools are provided in the form of familiar visual objects, and manipulated like real-world counterparts, rather than with buttons, icons and menus found in classic WIMP interfaces. This paper describes the formative evaluation of computer interactions that are based upon familiar real world tasks, which supports multitouch interaction, involves few buttons and icons, no menus, no right-clicks or double-clicks and no dialogs. Using an example of an email client to test the principles of using “familiarity”, the initial feedback was very encouraging, with 3 of the 4 participants being able to undertake some of the basic email tasks with no prior training and little or no help. The feedback has informed a number of refinements of the design principles, such as providing clearer affordance for visual objects. A full study is currently underway

Intuitive learnability of touch gestures for technology-naïve older adults

Touch-based interactions, if intuitive and natural, should be highly learnable. However, the learnability of touch gestures as a computer interaction modality cannot be taken for granted and should be evaluated empirically. This is especially true when technology-naïve older adults are concerned, given the psychological and physical constraints associated with this age range. To investigate this issue, we conducted a study with 17 technology-naïve older adults, whose experience with technology was mostly limited to making calls with mobile phones. Specifically, the participants were presented with three simple digital games on an interactive tabletop surface and asked to play the games on their own with minimal instruction or help. The first two games required the use of a drag gesture whereas the third game required the use of a rotate gesture. The main research question was whether the older adults could learn the gestures effectively and efficiently. A set of variables such as task duration and gesture accuracy were measured. Results showed that the learnability of a drag gesture was relatively high and that the participants could transfer this skill across the games. In contrast, the learnability of a rotate gesture was low and most of the participants failed to demonstrate any improvement over the tasks of the game. These findings partially corroborate those of earlier work. Implications for future work are drawn, especially exploring the potential of social interactions between older adults for enhancing the learning effects

Considerations in Designing Human-Computer Interfaces for Elderly People

As computing devices continue to become more heavily integrated into our lives, proper design of human-computer interfaces becomes a more important topic of discussion. Efficient and useful human-computer interfaces need to take into account the abilities of the humans who will be using such interfaces, and adapt to difficulties that different users may face – such as the difficulties that elderly users must deal with. Interfaces that allow for user-specific customization, while taking into account the multiple difficulties that older users might face, can assist the elderly in properly using these newer computing devices, and in doing so possibly achieving a better quality of life through the advanced technological support that these devices offer. In this paper, we explore common problems the elderly face when using computing devices and solutions developed for these problems. Difficulties ultimately fall into several categories: cognition, auditory, haptic, visual, and motor-based troubles. We also present an idea for a new adaptive operating system with advanced customizations that would simplify computing for older users

Developing a multi-touch serious game to fight the digital divide : the Portuguese ATM a pilot case study

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has grown substantially over the past few years. However, a portion of the world’s society has not been able to keep up with these technological advances. For this purpose, we present a serious game with a multi-touch interface envisioned to encourage and teach digitally excluded people on how to use the Portuguese Automated Teller Machine (ATM): a commodity much needed by society, but still avoided by some, mainly due to their fear of the digital world. An exploratory study was conducted to investigate if a serious game based on a new interaction paradigm can have a positive influence in the struggle against the Portuguese digital divide. We believe that the findings of our pilot case study can be useful to determine if a multi-touch serious game, due to its intuitiveness and ease of use, can stimulate the digitally excluded people to handle the ATM on a regular basis. The results that were obtained suggest that this approach may indeed produce a positive impact in the attempt to bridge the Portuguese digital divide.We would like to acknowledge the support and contribution of the two Parishes of Vila Real and their Chairmen. Diana Carvalho has a PhD fellowship granted by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/81541/2011)

Learning to drag: the effects of social interactions in touch gestures learnability for older adults

Considering the potential physical limitations of older adults, the naturalness of touch-based gestures as an interaction method is questionable. Assuming touch-based gestures are natural, they should be highly learnable and amenable to enhancement through social interactions. To investigate whether social interactions can enhance the learnability of touch gestures for older adults with low digital literacy, we conducted a study with 42 technology- naïve participants aged 64 to 82. They were paired and encouraged to play two games on an interactive tabletop with the expectation to use the drag gesture to complete the games socially. We then compared these results with a previous study of technology–naïve older adults playing the same games individually. The results of the comparisons show that dyadic interactions had some benefits for the participants in helping them to become comfortable with the drag gesture by negotiation and imitation. Further qualitative analysis suggested that playing pairs generally helped learners to comfortably explore the digital environment using the newly acquired skill

Gesture Recognition and Control Part 1 - Basics, Literature Review & Different Techniques

This Exploratory paper series reveals the technological aspects of Gesture Controlled User Interface (GCUI), and identifies trends in technology, application and usability. It is found that GCUI now affords realistic opportunities for specific application are as, and especially for use rs who are uncomfortable with more commonly used input devices. It further explored collated chronograph research information on which covers the past research work in Literature Review . Researchers investigated different types of gestures, its uses, applic ations, technology, issues and results from existing research

Evaluation of mobile health education applications for health professionals and patients

Paper presented at 8th International conference on e-Health (EH 2016), 1-3 July 2016, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. ABSTRACT Mobile applications for health education are commonly utilized to support patients and health professionals. A critical evaluation framework is required to ensure the usability and reliability of mobile health education applications in order to facilitate the saving of time and effort for the various user groups; thus, the aim of this paper is to describe a framework for evaluating mobile applications for health education. The intended outcome of this framework is to meet the needs and requirements of the different user categories and to improve the development of mobile health education applications with software engineering approaches, by creating new and more effective techniques to evaluate such software. This paper first highlights the importance of mobile health education apps, then explains the need to establish an evaluation framework for these apps. The paper provides a description of the evaluation framework, along with some specific evaluation metrics: an efficient hybrid of selected heuristic evaluation (HE) and usability evaluation (UE) factors to enable the determination of the usefulness and usability of health education mobile apps. Finally, an explanation of the initial results for the framework was obtained using a Medscape mobile app. The proposed framework - An Evaluation Framework for Mobile Health Education Apps – is a hybrid of five metrics selected from a larger set in heuristic and usability evaluation, filtered based on interviews from patients and health professionals. These five metrics correspond to specific facets of usability identified through a requirements analysis of typical users of mobile health apps. These metrics were decomposed into 21 specific questionnaire questions, which are available on request from first author

Evaluating body tracking interaction in floor projection displays with an elderly population

The recent development of affordable full body tracking sensors has made this technology accessible to millions of users and gives the opportunity to develop new natural user interfaces. In this paper we focused on developing 2 natural user interfaces that could easily be used by an elderly population for interaction with a floor projection display. One interface uses feet positions to control a cursor and feet distance to activate interaction. In the second interface, the cursor is controlled by ray casting the forearm into the projection and interaction is activated by hand pose. The interfaces were tested by 19 elderly participants in a point-and-click and a drag-and-drop task using a between-subjects experimental design. The usability and perceived workload for each interface was assessed as well as performance indicators. Results show a clear preference by the participants for the feet controlled interface and also marginal better performance for this method.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio