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Articles

Use and Design of Handheld Computers for Older Adults: A Review and Appraisal

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Pages 799-826 | Published online: 23 Oct 2012
 

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive literature review to investigate whether and why older adults accept handheld computers and how to design elderly-friendly handheld computers. Findings about acceptance, input devices, menu and functions, and output devices are summarized. First, older adults were under social pressure to use mobile phones, but they had low acceptance of advanced functions. Also, they had a different way to judge acceptance factors from younger adults. Second, older adults preferred the physical keyboard to the on-screen keyboard for text entry, whereas they preferred tapping the touch pad to the joystick and buttons for pointing tasks. Third, older adults had shallower mental representation of the mobile phone menus than younger adults. Navigation aids providing contextual information and large cognitive preview per screen could help them. Finally, recommended size and spacing for text and icons are presented.

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a National Science Foundation China grant 70971074 and a National Science Foundation China Grant 71188001.

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