Navigating the Mobile Applications: The Influence of Interface Metaphor and Other Factors on Older Adults’ Navigation Behavior

Abstract

The interface metaphor was suggested to facilitate a user’s mental model development while navigating, whereas its effectiveness is still unknown among the group of older adults. We developed an experiment to investigate how older adults navigate the mobile interfaces with and without metaphors, by evaluating the possible effects of users’ perceptual speed, task complexity, content similarity, and other related user characteristics in an integrated fashion. Results indicated that the use of interface metaphor could assist in the older adults’ navigation performance, but only for those with a higher level of perceptual speed. Additionally, we found that the older adult’s navigation behavior was significantly influenced by the task complexity, content similarity and the users’ level of technology experience. These findings can help researchers and practitioners to evaluate the effectiveness of interface metaphor on older adults’ mobile navigation behavior by identifying the possible influential factors and interpreting the behind reasons.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by School of Design Collaborative Research Funding, School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University [Project ID P0035058] and Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China [21YJC760040].

Notes on contributors

Qingchuan Li

Qingchuan Li is an Assistant Professor in College of Humanity and Social Science at Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen. She has published several peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters, and international conference papers. Her research interests focus on human-computer interaction, usability and user experience, user-centered design, and universal design.

Yan Luximon

Yan Luximon is an Associate Professor in School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include ergonomics in design, anthropometry, 3D digital human modeling and CAD, design tool and visualization, head and face related products, human computer interaction, cultural difference, statistical and mathematical models.