Web Design that is Friendly to Older Adults – Effects of Perceptual, Cognitive and Motor Functions and Display Information on Web Navigation Time –

Older internet users are increasing more and more world widely. The information accessibility standard for Web contents (JIS X 8341-3) had been established. Although many researchers are pursuing the usability of Web site, we cannot design a usable Web site only by improving Web pages. One of the reasons is inferred that we didn’t consider perceptual, cognitive, and motor functions especially of older adults in the design of Web pages. The aim of this study was to propose a method to evaluate perceptual, cognitive, and motor ability and to explore the effect of perceptual, cognitive and motor abilities, and display information on Web navigation. We proposed a method to calculate display information on the basis of number of links. It was explored how display information, age, and the test score of perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities influenced Web navigation time. This effect was examined using a multiple regression analysis. Display information influenced Web navigation performance for both young and older adults. The more the quantity of display information was, the longer the Web navigation time was. In addition to this tendency, the depth of display layer was found to affect the Web navigation time especially for older adults. We found that the perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities of older adults, in particular, the spatial memory, spatial rotation ability, and mouse operation ability, led to longer Web navigation time. These results implies the necessity of designing Web site for older adults that considers the decline of perceptual, cognitive, and motor ability

Optimal Slope of Touch Panel －Comparison between Young and Older Adults－

Touch panels are becoming increasingly common alternatives to traditional indirect devices such as mouse. However, older adults are not willing to utilize touch-panel based ATM or ticket machines, because they feel that using ATM properly is too difficult and annoying for them. The aim of this study was to identify an optimal slope of touch panel interface. Whether using a direct input device by older adults would lead to smaller difference of performance between preferred and non-preferred hands was also examined. For both young and older adults, the slope conditions of 30, 45, and 60 degrees, and the target size of 60 x 60 pixels were found to lead to higher performance. With the increase of movement distance d, the movement velocity tended to increase for both age groups. The difference of movement velocity between young and older adults tended to increase with the increase of movement distance d. The difference of performance between nonpreferred and preferred hands was smaller relative to their young counterparts. Moreover, the difference of performance between young and older adults was smaller when using a touch panel than when using a mouse

Comparison of Performance among Different Situations of Operation in Web Display - Comparison of Behavioral Features between Young and Older Adults -

In order to clarify the situation where older adults feel inconvenient when carrying out various Web operations, the differences of Web search behavior between young and older adults were examined using Web sites with different layered structures. The following two situations were used to address the issue above: (1) operation of a "Back" button, and (2) operation of a hyperlink. When the operation of "Back" button was necessary, the task completion time of older adults was 2.3 times as long as that of young adults. Such a difference must be obtained, because older adults need more time to recognize and understand the layered structure. When operation "Back" button in a raw, the task completion time of older adults was 3.9 times as long as that of young adults. Moreover, the task completion time of older adults increased in case of searching in the deep layered Web site due to the slower and declined cognition and judgment. When selecting a hyperlink, the task completion time of older adults was 12.1 times as long as that of young adults. On the basis of this tendency, we inferred that older adults took more time and became more careful when selecting a hyperlink

Effects of Image and Layered Structure on Web Search Performance -Evaluation on the Basis of Movement Distance of Mouse Pointer-

The aim of this paper was to explore the effects of image addition and layered structure on Web search performance on the basis of the search time and the movement trajectory of mouse pointer. The difference of search characteristics between young and older adults was also examined. Older adults tended to take more time to search for the linked item especially when the layered structure was deep. For the deep layered structure, both young and older adults allocate more time to think which items should be selected than to operate a mouse. For all participants, less mouse movement was observed for the image-based link condition than for the character-based link condition. This tendency was more remarkable for older adults. Moreover, it was clarified that more mouse movement was observed with the increase of the number of hyperlinks per Web page. When the layered structure was shallow, the following difference of mouse operation characteristics between young and older adults was observed: Older adults made an attempt to locate the search item while moving a mouse simultaneously. On the other hand, young adults began to move a mouse after locating the search item

Factorization, reduction and embedding in integrable cellular automata

Factorized dynamics in soliton cellular automata with quantum group symmetry is identified with a motion of particles and anti-particles exhibiting pair creation and annihilation. An embedding scheme is presented showing that the D^{(1)}_n-automaton contains, as certain subsectors, the box-ball systems and all the other automata associated with the crystal bases of non-exceptional affine Lie algebras. The results extend the earlier ones to higher representations by a certain reduction and to a wider class of boundary conditions.Comment: LaTeX2e, 20 page

Regional contributions through athletic lessons for elementary school children

We have provided athletic lessons for elementary school children for four years. These lessons are at the center of a project that aims to contribute to the local community. Initially, we decided on the following theme: “Have fun, learn to run fast, and stand on the Big Swan track.” To improve children’s competitive abilities, we focused on engaging them in fun activities that would lay the foundation for a life filled with sports; to motivate and engage the children, we gave them a chance to attend track meets as part of the program. This project has great potential, both as a practical approach to Track and Field instruction and as a basis for student volunteer activities in the elementary school teaching course. We believe that faculty members and students of Niigata University of Health and Welfare will be able to connect with many more children in the region through this project

Simple Algorithm for Factorized Dynamics of g_n-Automaton

We present an elementary algorithm for the dynamics of recently introduced soliton cellular automata associated with quantum affine algebra U_q(g_n) at q=0. For g_n = A^{(1)}_n, the rule reproduces the ball-moving algorithm in Takahashi-Satsuma's box-ball system. For non-exceptional g_n other than A^{(1)}_n, it is described as a motion of particles and anti-particles which undergo pair-annihilation and creation through a neutral bound state. The algorithm is formulated without using representation theory nor crystal basis theory.Comment: LaTex2e 9 pages, no figure. For proceedings of SIDE IV conferenc

Soliton Cellular Automata Associated With Crystal Bases

We introduce a class of cellular automata associated with crystals of irreducible finite dimensional representations of quantum affine algebras U'_q(\hat{\geh}_n). They have solitons labeled by crystals of the smaller algebra U'_q(\hat{\geh}_{n-1}). We prove stable propagation of one soliton for \hat{\geh}_n = A^{(2)}_{2n-1}, A^{(2)}_{2n}, B^{(1)}_n, C^{(1)}_n, D^{(1)}_n and D^{(2)}_{n+1}. For \gh_n = C^{(1)}_n, we also prove that the scattering matrices of two solitons coincide with the combinatorial R matrices of U'_q(C^{(1)}_{n-1})-crystals.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX2

Bethe ansatz at q=0 and periodic box-ball systems

A class of periodic soliton cellular automata is introduced associated with crystals of non-exceptional quantum affine algebras. Based on the Bethe ansatz at q=0, we propose explicit formulas for the dynamical period and the size of certain orbits under the time evolution in A^{(1)}_n case.Comment: 12 pages, Introduction expanded, Summary added and minor modifications mad

Crystal interpretation of Kerov-Kirillov-Reshetikhin bijection

The Kerov-Kirillov-Reshetikhin (KKR) bijection is the crux in proving fermionic formulas. It is defined by a combinatorial algorithm on rigged configurations and highest paths. We reformulate the KKR bijection as a vertex operator by purely using combinatorial R in crystal base theory. The result is viewed as a nested Bethe ansatz at q=0 as well as the direct and the inverse scattering (Gel'fand-Levitan) map in the associated soliton cellular automaton.Comment: 28 page