Paper Info
Title
Relating computer tasks to existing knowledge to improve accessibility for older adults
Abstract
Routine computer tasks are often difficult for older adult computer users to learn and remember. People tend to learn new tasks by relating new concepts to existing knowledge. However, even for 'basic' computer tasks there is little, if any, existing knowledge on which older adults can base their learning. This paper investigates a custom file management interface that was designed to aid discovery and learnability by providing interface objects that are familiar to the user. A study was conducted which examined the differences between older and younger computer users when undertaking routine file management tasks using the standard Windows desktop as compared with the custom interface. Results showed that older adult computer users requested help more than ten times as often as younger users when using a standard windows/mouse configuration, made more mistakes and also required significantly more confirmations than younger users. The custom interface showed improvements over standard Windows/mouse, with fewer confirmations and less help being required. Hence, there is potential for an interface that closely mimics the real world to improve computer accessibility for older adults, aiding self-discovery and learnability.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1145/1878803.1878830
ASSETS
Keywords
Field
DocType
computer accessibility,younger user,existing knowledge,older adult computer user,younger computer user,routine computer task,relating computer task,computer task,standard windows,older adult,custom interface,human computer interaction
Computer science,Human–computer interaction,File management,Multimedia,Learnability
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.41
10
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Nic Hollinworth1294.96
Faustina Hwang220624.70